


put your hands on my body (just like you think you know me)

by elizetcetera



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Casual Sex, M/M, Strangers to Lovers, Two Night Stand AU, background jaeyong, background yuwin, basically they get snowed in together and fluff ensues, bisexual legend johnny seo, he drinks way too much as a coping mechanism, i do not recommend this behavior, ten is a dancer in nyc
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-28
Updated: 2019-05-06
Packaged: 2020-02-08 14:21:06
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 20,118
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18625015
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/elizetcetera/pseuds/elizetcetera
Summary: Ten has a one-night stand with a stranger he met on Grindr. The next morning, he's prepared to pretend it never happened and take off, never to see Johnny Seo again. Too bad the New York City weather has different plans.





	1. both hands, open the door

**Author's Note:**

> This is based on a movie called Two Night Stand. I wrote this so that you don't have to watch it.  
> Chapter title from "Lips" by NCT 127

“Stop moping.”

“I’m not moping!” Ten whined, face down in the plush cushions of their old green futon.

Sicheng threw a pillow at him. “You’ve been in that exact position for three days. I’m saying this to you as a friend: it’s time to bathe.”

“Sicheng! If you were really my friend, you’d let me die here,” Ten sighed dramatically into the sofa, breathing in the aroma of spilled ramen broth and weed fumes. He could feel his roommate’s judgmental gaze without looking, though, so he un-peeled his face from the polyester and gave him his best puppy-dog eyes.

“You can’t go into a spiral just because the bachelorette chose the wrong guy. They’ll break up within six months anyway. Why do you even still watch that show?”

“It’s true love, Sicheng!”

Sicheng just stared at him, unmoved. “You have twenty minutes, or I’m calling Lucas.”

Ten was off the couch and in the shower within seconds.

 When he was clean and in fresh clothes and feeling marginally like less of a dumpster person, he came out to the living room to Kun, Lucas, Hendery, and Taeyong sitting together, talking amongst themselves, their cheeks red with from the harsh New York city cold. Sicheng was sitting to one side, looking guilty. The group stopped talking abruptly when they saw Ten, hair dripping wet and dressed in little more than sweatpants and a towel wrapped around his torso like a cape.

 Ten zeroed in on Lucas, who grinned widely and waved, before turning to Sicheng with a look of pure betrayal. “You traitor. I did what you asked, and this is what you bring into my house? Also, what’s going on?”

“I called them because you needed to hear this from other people,” Sicheng insisted.  
 Taeyong leaned forward slightly, looking unusually calm. “We just want what’s best for you, Ten, because we’re all your friends here…”

“Oh my God,” Ten swore at the ceiling. “This is an intervention. I can’t fucking believe this. Is this because of The Bachelorette?”

“It’s just been… a while… and you’ve been a little… not so good,” Taeyong finishes, scratching his neck awkwardly.

“I just showered. I feel like that’s progress,” Ten gestured behind him in the direction of the bathroom, glaring at Sicheng. “I also feel like this might be the slightest bit overkill.”

“You haven’t had sex in months, Ten! We’re worried about you. We don’t want you to die a spinster,”  Hendery chimed in, only having the decency to look the slightest bit sheepish, the little brat.  
 “Oh my god, I’m--” Ten cut off, throwing his hands in the air in frustration. “I am twenty-three, first of all.”

“And you broke up with P—"

Ten hissed, cutting Kun off with a sharp, “Don’t say his name!”

Kun rolled his eyes, continuing. “You broke up with he-who-must-not-be-named, like, six months ago.”

“Yeah, and it fucking sucked and he ruined my life! I’m allowed to have a mourning period, Jesus!”

“No, but this isn’t how you cope!” Lucas insisted. “Ten goes out and dances and has one-night stands to get over a break-up. Ten doesn’t stay in and watch Netflix and act sad.”

“I feel so supported, guys, thanks!” Ten got up and started for the kitchen, making sure his friends couldn’t miss the sarcasm dripping from his voice. He needed vodka, desperately.

“Just think about it! We’ll take you dancing, get you drunk. It’ll be great, Ten, come on,” Hendery said, attempting to turn on the aegyo. It couldn’t work if Ten didn’t look at his face, God damn it. “We’re worried about you.”

And nope, he absolutely couldn’t have this conversation. It was a lot easier to ignore them when they were being assholes than when they sounded legitimately concerned. He grabbed the vodka, strutted pointedly back into the living room and past his friends without making eye-contact with any of them, and flounced into his bedroom cradling the vodka like a baby, shutting the door behind him.

He ignored the offended shouts from his friends as he took a big swig from the bottle and put in his headphones, logging into Netflix. What did they know, anyway?

* * *

 

 Forty-eight hours later, Ten was mildly buzzed on the couch, and it was 9 in the evening. Sicheng was out with Yuta; it was “date night”, which Ten was pretty sure was code for sex on Yuta’s couch while his roommate was out of town. Anyway, it didn’t matter; all that mattered right now was that someone’s cake was burnt on the Great British Bake-Off and a contestant was in tears. 

Ten sighed, looking at his phone. There were messages from all of his friends, ultimately unsuccessful attempts to coax him out of his apartment for the evening. He had already downed half a bottle of merlot by himself, and he wasn’t sure this was making him feel better.

He wasn’t admitting defeat, he told himself, by logging into Grindr. He wasn’t going to actually do anything; it was just window shopping. He could see all of the desperate creeps that he would never in a million years actually sleep with, and it would remind him why he didn’t use these stupid apps.

He amused himself for a good half hour scrolling through some truly ridiculous profiles. There was a guy that described himself--himself!--as “dark and mysterious,” and Ten was sorely tempted to troll him with Backstreet Boy lyrics.

He was almost through another glass of wine--and about a dozen messages deep with Backstreet Boy--when he got a message from another guy on the app.

            **Johnny Suh** : hey

            **Johnny Suh** : are you from tennessee

            Ten stared at it incredulously. No way was this fuck boy about to use that line with him. No fucking way. He squinted at the profile. He’d glanced at it a few minutes before--the guy was hot, and twenty-four, but ultimately not entertaining enough to hold his attention for trolling purposes.

            **Ten** : i want you to think very carefully about what you’re about to do here

            **Johnny Suh:** cause you’re the only ten I see

            **Ten:** …

            **Johnny Su** h: get it?

            **Johnny Suh** : cause your name is ten?

           **Johnny Suh** : its good right

            **Ten** : ...you know the goal here is to get laid, right?

            **Ten** : as in make people want to have sex with you

            **Johnny Suh** : i mean, you haven’t blocked me yet

            **Johnny Suh** : dare I say… successful pun? are you madly in love with me now

            **Ten** : jesus christ

            **Johnny Suh** : nope, just johnny

          **Ten** : oh my god. fine.

            **Johnny Suh:** so you admit that it was a good pun

            **Ten** : no, never. i meant fine, let’s hook up. imma little tipsy rn and I have low standards

            **Johnny Suh** : tbh not the worst thing a potential hook-up has said to me

[ **Johnny Suh** has sent you his location]

            **Johnny Suh** : my place?

            **Ten** : uh, a little eager, my friend. skype first so i can make sure you’re not a creep

          **Johnny Suh** : yeah, here

He sent his information, and Ten put it into his phone and clicked call before he could talk himself out of it. The guy picked up within two rings, and wow, he was actually kind of hot. A little disheveled, in an NYU hoodie and glasses, clearly not planning on going out this evening, but indisputably attractive.

The guy--Johnny--ran a hand through his long hair a little self-consciously, and okay, yes, he would do nicely for a rebound. “So… am I a creep?”

Ten eyed Johnny’s background suspiciously. “That depends. Are there bodies stashed under that bed?”

 Johnny grinned. He made a show of looking around, checking under nearby blankets. He raised a muscled arm up over his head in a slow stretch, looking thoughtful. “Don’t think so, but you can never be too sure. Why don’t you come check it out yourself?”

"Okay,” Ten groaned into his hands, trying to stifle a laugh. “Now you definitely sound like a serial killer. That is absolutely what a serial killer would say. Is that supposed to be sexy?”

“Is it working? I think some people are into that. I’m not here to kink-shame, dude.”

Ten just stared at the man on the screen, shaking his head in disbelief. What was he doing? Was he really about to voluntarily walk into the home of a stranger he’d met on the internet? But he was getting more sober by the minute, and he didn’t want to sit at home and wallow for another second. “Fuck it. I don’t usually do this, but you seem okay, Johnny. Still wanna have sex? No strings attached.”

Johnny looked surprised. “What, really? I mean… hell yeah, totally. Wait… are _you_ a serial killer?”

Ten didn’t try to hide his laughter this time, a little exhilarated. “I’ll see you in half an hour.”        

He hung up, still in disbelief. He hadn’t been lying when he’d told Johnny that he didn’t usually do this. Before his last relationship, he’d hooked up with plenty of people, but they were people he’d met in real life, at clubs or the gym or the studio; they weren’t total strangers, at least. This was… different. But Johnny was hot, and he didn’t seem like a total psychopath, so that was a bonus. And maybe his friends were just the tiniest bit right: he needed to get his ex out of his head.

He made himself a little more presentable, sorting out his hair and putting on clothes that he hadn’t spilled ice cream on. He didn’t need to look stunning, he reminded himself; the deal was already sealed, and Johnny had just seen him looking like a pile of old socks on the couch, so. That ship had sailed.

He took a deep breath in the mirror, murmuring words of encouragement at his reflection, then sent his friends’ group chat a quick text letting them know what he was doing and the appropriate window in which to call the police if need be. He rolled his eyes at the round of celebratory emojis flooding the chat, locking his phone with finality. He was off to have rebound sex with a complete stranger. Normal stuff.

 

* * *

 

The next morning, Ten woke up in an unfamiliar bed, which wasn’t as disorientating as it should have been. It was past when he usually woke up for dance, but it was a Sunday, and apparently, Johnny didn’t have anywhere to be either, because he was still fast asleep and draped over Ten like a giant bear rug. Ten did his best to elbow Johnny off without waking him up, trying to locate his clothes as quickly and quietly as possible. This was a difficult task, as every item of his clothing seemed to be strewn in the farthest corners of the room; Ten had no idea how’d that had happened.

Last night had been fun, but the cold light of day and total sobriety had made him realize how badly he needed to get home and back to his real life, attempt to rebuild the shambles of his life that his stupid ex-boyfriend had left behind, as truly horrific as that sounded. He didn’t want to be single forever, as it turned out. But the last obstacle standing in his way was his lack of a shirt, and it didn’t seem to be anywhere in this godforsaken bedroom.

It wasn’t that bad, Ten supposed--at least there wasn’t old food littered around the place, as had been the norm for the gross college boys Ten used to sleep with--but Johnny definitely didn’t mind mess the same way Ten did. He wrinkled his nose as he nudged a hoodie with bold Greek letters emblazoned across the front of it with his foot, and yes, that explained a few things. 

The dresser was the only surface that was mostly uncluttered, with only some framed pictures and what looked to be a reasonably expensive camera collecting dust. As he searched, he tripped over a stuffed giraffe--what the actual hell--and fell over, swearing loudly as he stared up at the ceiling. Maybe this was his fate, honestly, to die on the cluttered bedroom floor of a frat boy. Maybe this was what he deserved.

After a few seconds of getting used to his new home, a face appeared in his field of vision. Johnny had stumbled out of bed and was looking mildly concerned as he stared down at Ten. “You okay?”

“I couldn’t find my shirt.”

Johnny raised an eyebrow. “So you decided to look for it down there?”

Ten leveled him what he hoped was an unimpressed glare, but it was hard to tell if it landed upside down. “Maybe I wouldn’t have to if I could see an inch of the floor.”

Johnny shrugged with a sheepish smile, clearly no longer concerned about Ten’s well-being, before glancing around him, shifting around piles of stuff. “Here,” he said after a few seconds, reaching down under the bed and gently depositing the lost shirt on Ten’s chest when he didn’t reach out to take it. “Can I help you up, or are you good down there?”

“I’m good, thanks,” Ten responded with false cheer. “Feel free to do your normal thing, I’ll be out of here in a minute.”

“Hey, no, stay for breakfast?” Johnny was in the midst of pulling his messy hair into a bun and locating clothing for himself.  “Just give me a minute.”

“Last night was great, but I need to get going,” Ten sat up, quickly tugging his shirt over his head and feeling around for his phone and wallet.

“Are you sure? I make killer pancakes. You look like you could at least use a cup of coffee before you go--”

“Gee, thanks,” Ten was pretty sure he was being told he looked like shit, so that was great. He’d successfully located all of his possessions, though, and he was fully dressed, so now was the point where he and Johnny parted ways and never saw each other again. “But no, it’s fine, I really need to get home.”

“Alright,” Johnny looked a little lost as he considered Ten. “Uh, can I, like, get your number? We should go out sometime.”

Ten looked up from where he was hastily lacing up his boots, eyebrows raised in surprise. Johnny looked right back, seeming genuine, and when Ten didn’t say anything, his judgment probably very evident, he said, “I mean, I don’t really know what the protocol is here? I don’t usually do this.”

Ten scoffed. “I don’t either. What, you think this is a normal Saturday night activity for me? Meeting strangers on Grindr?”

Johnny floundered, and clearly Ten had gotten it exactly right. “Oh my God, that’s really what you think! Okay, right, because I’m such a slut. Great.”

“That’s not--I didn’t--” All of Johnny’s previous confidence had disappeared with the word _slut_ , and now he was at a loss, mouth opening and closing as he tried to puzzle out a response. “There’s nothing wrong with having a lot of sex! You just seemed like you were used to this, I guess!”

Ten finished lacing up his boots and grabbed his stuff, zipping up his coat as he went. “Yeah, _okay_.” There could have been literal acid dripping from his tongue, and his voice wouldn’t have been more acerbic. “You have a good Sunday, John.”

“It’s Johnny--”

“Luckily, we never have to see each other again, so it really doesn’t matter.”

Johnny let out a humorless, frustrated laugh and threw his hands in the air. “Okay, fuck you, too!”

“Been there, done that, darling. Or have you forgotten that I’m a slut?”

“I didn’t call you a slut!”

“You didn’t have to.” Ten was at the front door of the apartment now, which was the perfect moment for a dramatic flip of his scarf as he wrapped it around his neck. Nobody said that he didn’t love a bit of drama. “Bye, John!”

Before he could respond, Ten was out the door and storming down the stairwell. So that had gone terribly. At least the sex had been half-good. Not great, Ten supposed, but adequate. Fine for a distraction from his real problems. Too bad the guy had been a jerk.

By the time he had made it down the six flights of stairs to the entrance of the building, he was about ready to forget that Johnny had ever existed, and move on to more interesting things, like a mimosa. And French toast. The balanced breakfast that Ten deserved, after a morning like that.

And wow, it was a little snowy outside. Ten didn’t know how he hadn’t noticed that upstairs, out Johnny’s bedroom window. The snow was coming down fast and hard, and from in here, Ten couldn’t tell how much snow had accumulated on the ground.

When Ten tried the door, the sinking feeling he felt intensified by a factor of a hundred when it wouldn’t budge. “Oh, fuck, please open.”

Maybe it was just frozen shut? He tried again, slamming his full body weight into the metal door. He looked outside through the little window, trying to see what it looked like out there. He could see a car, he thought--a car almost completely covered in snow. And this was just his luck, wasn’t it? He still couldn’t get the damn door open more than a centimeter, and then it was clear that there was snow piled high against it. He swore as some snow tumbled inside onto his boots, slamming the door shut quickly.

He dialed his roommate--thank God he at least had cell phone service in here, considering his recent luck--who picked up after about five rings. “Sicheng! You’ve got to help me.”

“What? Ten? Where are you?”

Sicheng sounded more than a little distracted, and Ten could hear Yuta in the background saying something. Great. He’d probably interrupted something. “I’m still at that guy’s place, and I can’t get out of the building!”

“Dude, there’s a blizzard outside. The plows aren’t even running; didn’t you see the news? There was, like, five feet of snow last night. You’re not going anywhere for awhile.”

“What? It’s not even December yet! What the fuck?”

“I don’t know what to tell you, Ten, I can’t control the weather.”

Ten closed his eyes, leaning his head against the freezing metal of the door. “I can’t fucking believe this.”

There was a pause. “Sorry, Ten. Hang in there, alright? It’s just a few hours of awkwardness, then you can be out of there,” Sicheng sounded so calm, and it was kind of infuriating to Ten right now.

“Easy for you to say,” Ten pouted. “He called me a slut! And not in a sexy way, either.”

“What? Really?”

“Well, I mean, not in so many words…” Ten amended, feeling a little bad when he heard the outrage in his friend’s voice. “But the sentiment was there, I swear.”

Sicheng sighed, sounding increasingly tired. “Ten, just… try not to kill him, please? Try to… be nice, maybe?”

“What? I’m always nice.”

“Yeah, yeah, but seriously. You can be a little quick to judge--”

Ten squawked indignantly, but Sicheng cut him off before he could refute that incredibly  untrue statement. “Just give him a chance, and try to get through the next few hours peacefully, please. And then you never have to see him again.”

Ten huffed. He supposed he could do that. “Fine. But you have to buy me breakfast tomorrow to make up for my misery here, okay?”

“Whatever, I gotta go, I’m at Yuta’s. Good luck, Ten, see you soon!” He hung up with a click, and Ten contemplated how long he could reasonably stay here on the freezing concrete floor of this stairwell, pouting like a child and feeling sorry for himself. The decision was made for him when, a few minutes later, a familiar face came barreling down the stairs two at a time with a basket of laundry in his arms, singing quietly to himself.

Johnny stopped abruptly when he saw Ten slumped against the door, looking outside at the blizzard and then back at Ten. A slow, self-deprecating smirk spread across his face as he took in the situation, as he reached a hand out to help Ten off the floor.

“How about those pancakes?”


	2. shading in the lines

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter title is from "Rendezvous" by Years & Years

Johnny and Ten were sitting in silence at Johnny’s rickety kitchen table, eating what were admittedly some of the best pancakes Ten had ever had--not that he would ever tell Johnny that.

“So…” Johnny said around a mouthful of pancake. “Is Ten your real name?”

Ten resisted the urge to roll his eyes. “Yes, that’s what my parents decided to call their newborn baby.”

“Really?” Johnny seemed to be genuinely interested, and Ten almost felt a little bad for messing with him, if he was that naive. Almost.

“No, of course not.” Ten speared a piece of pancake with his fork a little violently and tried to drown it in as much syrup as possible before putting it in his mouth. “That’s just what all my friends call me. I’m from Thailand.”

“Oh! That’s cool. My parents are Korean, but I was born in the U.S. How long have you been here? Your English is so good.”

“Uh… thanks,” Ten was strangely self-conscious talking about this. He was proud of his background, but it was weird talking about it with a complete stranger. “I moved here when I eighteen.”

“Wow. That’s a big move, so young. I only moved from Chicago, and that felt big for me. Did you come here for school, too?”

“Are we really going to do this? The small talk thing? We’ve seen each other naked,” Ten pointed out.

Johnny nearly choked on his pancakes. He had to take a sip of coffee before he could respond. “Look,” he said slowly. “I don’t like this anymore than you do. But this is where we’re at, and don’t you think we’ll have a much better time if we actually get to know each other?”

“Mmm…” Ten pretended to think about it. “Actually, no, I don’t think so, as a matter of fact. I’ve heard you talk. It’s not for me.”

Johnny nodded slowly, gritting his teeth and looking more and more like he wanted to strangle Ten. “Okay, so… you wanna just sit here in silence for the next… what, five hours? Maybe more? Sounds like a blast.”

Ten blew out a breath of air. “Perfect. Great plan.”

Johnny rolled his eyes, but didn’t say anything. Ten went back to eating his breakfast, decidedly not looking in Johnny’s direction. Peace and quiet, finally.

A solid thirty seconds passed in which the only discernible sound was the clock ticking away and the sound of chewing as they finished their food.

“Okay!” Johnny said, getting up from the table. “Time flies when you’re having fun, huh? What a great day we’re having.”

“It’s not my fault you called me a slut.”

Johnny set down the plate he was carrying to the sink, heaving a melodramatic breath out. “I didn’t. You called yourself that. I don’t even say that word; I don’t like it.”

Ten was a little taken aback at his calm tone; he had been hoping to get a rise out of Johnny, and that wasn’t what he was expecting, so much so that he forgot to sound scathing when he said, “You don’t? Why?”

Johnny threw him a slight surprised glance over his shoulder as he washed the dishes. “Because it’s been used to shame women and queer people for like… forever? Just for daring to have some agency or, like, ownership over their own bodies. It’s fucking insane.”

Ten felt a twinge of… something. Not guilt, exactly, because there was no way that this frat boy could make him feel bad about something that he didn’t even do, but… he definitely felt weird in a way he couldn’t quite place. “Oh.”

Johnny looked up from the sink, possibly hearing the change in Ten’s tone. His expression softened. “That’s really not what I meant, this morning. It shouldn’t matter at all how much sex you have or don’t have, or who it’s with, seriously. I’m sorry if it came off wrong, but I was just feeling awkward and I didn’t know what to do. And you seemed so confident. That’s all it was. I promise.”

Ten nodded slowly, not sure how to respond. Sicheng may have been the tiniest bit right, as much as he hated to admit it; he had been quick to judge Johnny, and now he was having trouble reconciling the image he’d had in his head of ignorant asshole frat boy Johnny with the Johnny currently standing in the kitchen talking in soft tones about sex positivity. It was frankly bizarre.

Because Ten was so immediately out of his depth, he got up and started clearing off the table, putting the syrup in the cabinet he’d seen Johnny retrieve it from and washing off any crumbs from breakfast. Johnny smiled brightly at Ten’s apparent acceptance, murmuring a soft _thanks_ , and turned back to the dishes. And if Ten’s gaze lingered on Johnny for a moment too long, a little dazed from that smile, he would never admit it.

Maybe this wouldn’t be as bad as Ten thought.

           

* * *

 

 

Half an hour later, the snow was still falling, and Johnny and Ten weren’t talking.

Ten was curled up on the floor next a power outlet, knees close to his chest, earphones in as he watched videos on his phone. Johnny had migrated to the kitchen, talking in hushed tones into his phone. Ten couldn’t make out what he was saying, but he had to imagine it probably involved how annoyed he was with his unexpected Thai houseguest.

It wasn’t awkward, exactly; they just didn’t have a lot in common, Ten thought. It wasn’t weird at all that they weren’t talking.

He’d been texting his friends constantly since breakfast, trying to get some sympathy and finding that his friends totally sucked, as it turned out. In the group chat, Lucas, Hendery, and Yangyang had just laughed at him and his situation endlessly, before moving on to the ever-pressing topic of anime within about five minutes, although Lucas did spare a few words to applaud his industriousness regarding efficient sexual encounters, despite the fact that Grindr had not been his friends’ intended target with their stupid intervention.

Taeyong was marginally concerned, being the ever-anxious one of their group, but his concerns were quickly assuaged by Sicheng, who assured Taeyong that Ten was just being melodramatic, much to Ten’s dismay. All he’d wanted was for Taeyong to mother him for a moment, but his roommate always had to go ruin it for him by being far too honest.

He briefly considered calling his actual mother, but discounted that thought almost immediately when he remembered that it was nearly midnight in Bangkok right now; time zones could fuck right off, as far as Ten was concerned.

So now he was trying to forget about the situation he was in via cat videos, the universal cure-all. Truthfully, it wasn’t working so well.           

He noticed that there was silence in the kitchen, and within a few seconds, Johnny appeared in the living room, waving awkwardly. Ten smiled slightly in return, hoping that this would be the extent of the interaction.

Johnny didn’t seem to know where to go, however, and hovered where he was. “Is the charger working okay?”

Damn it. “Yes. Thanks for letting me borrow it.”

“Yeah, of course.” A pause. Ten had no earthly idea what Johnny could possibly say to add to this conversation; he could practically see Johnny’s wheels turning. “Do you want to play a board game?”

“Um…” Ten was at a loss. He hadn’t played a board game in at least a decade. That sounded like the most boring afternoon in the world, but what else was he going to do? At least it could pass some time, he supposed, without the two of them having to make awkward small talk. “Sure?”      

 

* * *

 

 

“Okay, there’s no way that’s a fucking word.”

They were on Johnny’s living room floor, sitting cross-legged around the coffee table, which was scattered with game tiles and quickly discarded rules pamphlets. The snow was still coming down thick and fast outside--the weatherman cheerfully announcing that it wouldn’t slow down anytime soon, so “get cozy!” as though it wasn’t Ten’s death knoll--and they were already an hour and a half into a truly ill-advised game of Scrabble, the game that notoriously had the power to turn even the best of friends into mortal enemies.

“Webster’s Dictionary says you’re wrong, man!” Johnny crowed triumphantly, brandishing his phone for Ten to see. “And triple word score… Looks like that is… 56 points for me.”

 “The English language is so stupid,” groaned Ten, squinting at the board in disgust. “‘Quixotic?’ That sounds nothing like English, for fuck’s sake. Also, I feel like I’m being taken advantage of, as a non-native speaker.”

“Oh, please,” Johnny snorted, gleefully tallying his points. “You just played ‘feudalism,’ like ten minutes ago. I think you’re doing just fine.”

“You think I know what feudalism means? Fuck, it could be a dinosaur and I wouldn’t know! I just have a good memory!”

Johnny laughed, loud and genuine and relaxed, and Ten felt himself flush with pride and something else that he couldn’t name. He didn’t know why he even cared if Johnny found him funny; maybe this was Stockholm syndrome. He’d seen a movie about that once, and that seemed about right.

Ten wasn’t sure when he’d started actually having fun, but it was a strange realization; he idly wondered if he and Johnny would have been friends, if they’d met in different circumstances.

 “Okay,” Ten announced suddenly, trying to distract himself from the way that Johnny was still grinning warmly at him from across the board. “I’m going to need alcohol to ease the pain of this loss.”

“It’s--” Johnny checked his phone. “2:00 PM. And you haven’t lost yet. Where’s your sense of competition?”

“I left it behind at ‘quixotic’,” Ten quipped. “My bilingual brain can’t take any more—just put me out of my misery. Come on, I know you have liquor hidden away somewhere in this apartment, frat boy. We’re snowed in, what does time matter, anyway? You got somewhere to be?”

 Johnny conceded his point with a nod. “I like the way you think. And what do you mean, ‘frat boy’? I’m a full-grown adult with a job, thank you very much.”

Ten leaned back on the palms of his hands, stretching out his legs languidly. “Oh? And are you denying that you were in a frat once upon a time?”

“Ok, fine, no--” Ten interrupted him with a sharp bark of laughter. “But it wasn’t, like… I don’t know, it was a good frat!”

Ten had collapsed all the way to the carpet at Johnny’s words, gasping for air at the look on Johnny’s face as he defended his fraternity. “Seriously! We did community service and everything! And how did you know I was in a frat, anyway?”

Ten had to take a moment to collect himself, still cackling. He took a few deep breaths as he sat up, trying to calm down. He counted the reasons on his fingers as he rattled off, “I’ve seen about a dozen snapbacks around this place, you’ve called me dude or man every other time you’ve talked to me, and you agreed to have sex with me in less than five minutes, no questions asked. Classic frat boy.”

Johnny gaped indignantly, about to respond, but Ten cut him off with a smooth, “Oh, and I saw a hoodie with Greek letters on it. That might have been helpful.”

Johnny was shaking his head, but he was grinning. “Alright, alright. I get it, I’m a walking stereotype. What you did you do in college, then, if not fuck around?”

“Uh, I got an education?” Ten teased. “Basically all I did for four years was dance. I barely saw the sun.”

“You’re a dancer?” Apparently, that was the detail Johnny had picked up on.

“Yeah, well, in theory,” Ten sighed, staring at the carpet bitterly. Not his favorite topic, to be honest. “Right now I’m just teaching. I had a real job lined up, before—some shit happened, and now I’m teaching. Which is fine. It’s just not exactly what I came to New York for.”

Johnny seemed to think about for a long moment. “If it makes you feel any better, I have yet to meet someone in this city really doing what they imagined they would do. I’m sure as hell not.”

“Yeah?” Ten said, leaning forward on his elbows. “And what do you do, Johnny Seo?”

Johnny laughed. “Well, I went to school for filmmaking. I’m currently working a 9 to 5 selling insurance. Cubicle and everything. It’s very glamorous.”

Ten cocked his head, absorbing this information. “So you want to makes movies? That’s not what I would have guessed.”

“Really? And what would you have guessed?”

The way that Johnny was looking at him, the teasing tilt of his head, Ten would almost think he was flirting. Well, Ten wouldn’t let himself be outdone in that regard, at least. He pretended to be thinking hard, tapping a finger to his chin, before pointing it at Johnny seriously. “K-pop star.”

“Okay, fuck you,” Johnny laughed, but he was blushing. It was maybe a little cute, Ten thought.

“No, really!” Ten insisted, enjoying his newly-discovered power to make Johnny squirm like this. “A face like that is all you need.”

“I think I’ll leave that to the dancer,” Johnny was rolling his eyes, but Ten could tell the compliment had landed. “Don’t you think you’re better suited to that kind of thing?”    

“I had an audition once, actually,” Ten grinned. “SM Entertainment. Back when I was still living in Bangkok. I didn’t end up going.”            

“Seriously?” Johnny asked, incredulously. “Why not?”

“I don’t know. I had already been accepted my program here, and I wouldn’t have ended up making it anyway.”

“Huh,” Johnny gazed at him, a contemplative look in his eyes. “I’m not so sure.”

Ten raised an eyebrow at him. “And also, I don’t speak a word of Korean. That would have been a slight problem, I think.”

“Hey, now that is something I do know. I’ll teach you, then you can call up SM and get your spot in Exo,” Johnny said, giving him finger guns and a goofy grin. “I think they would still let you in, right?”

Ten laughed at the sheer ridiculousness of this conversation and blew out a long breath of air. “Yeah, okay. Good plan. I can teach you to dance, and then we’ll join together.”

Johnny nodded seriously, getting to his feet. “We’d better get started. Should I grab the whiskey?”

“Johnny, darling, I thought you would never ask.”

           


	3. i'm loud, cause maybe you're the one

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> chapter title: "shut up" by greyson chance

“Do you like dogs?”

Ten was sitting on the mostly-clean kitchen counter, swinging his legs and pretending to scroll through Instagram while actually watching Johnny as he stirred the cocoa heating up on the stove.

Johnny gave him a look at the non-sequitur, but humored him all the same. “I love dogs. Why? Are you hiding one under there?”

“My friend just got a puppy,” Ten turned his phone to show Johnny, who cooed appreciatively, which was objectively the correct response. “Isn’t she cute? I want to kidnap her so bad.”

“The puppy, I hope, not the friend.”

“Ha, ha,” Ten said sarcastically, taking the phone back. “For that, you don’t get to see any more dogs.”

“Well, then you can’t have any whiskey,” Johnny swiped the bottle out from behind Ten’s back, holding it out of his reach.

“Nooo, Johnny,” Ten whined, making grabby hands for the bottle. “I take it back, you can see all the dogs, just don’t do this to me.”

Johnny chuckled, returning the bottle to Ten as he kept stirring. And Ten was good at this, this easy flirtation. Never too serious. “I think the hot cocoa’s about done, if you wanna get some mugs.”

Ten hopped down from the counter and searched through cabinets until he found some giant blue coffee mugs about the size of his head. He poured a shot of liquor into the bottom of each glass, ready for Johnny to spoon the hot liquid in to mix up. When the drinks were done, Ten picked up a mug, able to wrap both hands completely around its circumstance and reveling in the warmth of it. Johnny did the same, and they clinked their glasses together gently before taking a sip.      

And of course, there was nothing better than whiskey and hot chocolate. It was an undisputed fact of life that Ten was happy to be reminded of.

The steam billowed in his face as he drank, warm and cinnamon-scented, and when he glanced up at Johnny, he found Johnny already watching him.

“Stalker,” Ten teased lightly. “We talked about your serial killer thing, right?”

Johnny cleared his throat, smiling awkwardly as he looked away. “Right. The bodies under the bed. Could still be a serial killer, for all you know.”

“Nah, you’re clear. I was on your floor this morning, remember? No bodies.”

“Ah, shoot, I forgot that I moved them already—”

“Oh, shut up,” Ten swatted his arm. “If you were going to murder me, you would have done it already.”

“Unless I’m in it for the long game, and the blizzard is all part of my plan,” Johnny pointed out, moving for the couch and collapsing down on it.

“Hmm…” Ten put on his best Sherlock impression, following close behind and standing at the coffee table with his hot chocolate. “Unless!” he gasped, “I’m also a murderer and we’ve just been trying to murder each this whole time!”

“By George, I think you’ve solved it.” Johnny set his mug down to slow-clap as Ten took a dramatic bow, cup held aloft in the air like a bouquet of flowers.

Satisfied with his impromptu performance, he flopped down next to Johnny on the sofa and curled his legs in close to his body like a cat, sighing contently. He was a lot closer to Johnny than decorum would generally dictate, he now realized, as they made eye contact; there was barely a foot of space in between them, with plenty of free space on either end of the couch.

Neither of them moved.

“So,” Ten said, mostly to fill the silence that had now taken on a quality he wasn’t entirely sure he was comfortable with. “What would you be doing right now if there hadn’t been a blizzard?”

Johnny seemed to latch onto the topic like a lifeboat; Ten wondered what he’d been thinking about, just now. He wondered if it had been the same thing he had been. “Uhh… I was supposed to go out with my friends for a hike up in Hudson Valley. Obviously, we didn’t check the weather forecast first.”

“Oh? Your frat bros, by any chance?”

Johnny scoffed, “No,” and when Ten just waited, one eyebrow raised, he amended, “Okay, well, Mark is, technically, but he was just a lost baby freshman when I was senior, so he’s basically my little brother!”

“Yeah, yeah, I’m just messing with you,” Ten waved away, smirking. “I’m sure you and your frat bros have deep, emotional conversations all the time. Very profound stuff.”

“We do, I’ll have you know. Anyway, the rest of them are just assholes I’ve picked up through the course of work and school who haven’t let go.”

Ten nodded. “Yep, I have friends like that. Idiots, every single one of them. I love them, though, I guess.”

Johnny grinned, “Yeah, mine, too.”

Without missing a beat, Ten said, “So you hike, huh? That sounds horrible.”

Johnny was surprised into a laugh. “What? Why?”

“What are you supposed to do out there? With the trees? Without the internet?” Ten took a sip of hot chocolate, argument effectively won, in his opinion.

“Talk? Walk? Look at the trees? Take pictures? I don’t know, but it’s fun,” Johnny argued. “Don’t you want to just—get out of all of this, sometimes? This city?”

Ten did, all the time, actually. But the noise and constant bustle of the city brought its own sort of comfort; it was easy to get lost in it, forget that there was a world outside of this self-contained bubble of concrete and steel. “I guess.”

Johnny tilted his head at Ten. “What’s Bangkok like? That’s where you grew up, right?”

Ten jolted a little, shocked that Johnny had remembered that detail; he’d almost forgotten that he’d even mentioned it. “Yeah. I mean, it’s kind of like New York, but… it’s a little warmer.”

He gestured at the window, through which they could still see the fluffy white flakes piling up on the fire escape. Johnny nodded sincerely in agreement. “I would hope so.”

“Weirdly, I do miss the rain a little. The only time it cools down is when the monsoons come,” he laughed, thinking of what his mother would say if she heard him say that. “And in the rainy season I would always go into the little shops after school for soup, because it was too hot for it otherwise. The food was so much better than in New York, and nobody can convince me otherwise.”

“I don’t doubt it,” Johnny said. “It sounds amazing. I’d like to go someday.”

“You have to,” Ten agreed. “At least once before you die, go to Thailand. I bet it’s pretty different from…” Ten scrunched up his face to remember. There were so many cities in the United States. “Chicago?”

“Chicago,” Johnny confirmed. “Yeah, you would fucking hate it, if you think New York winters suck. You should probably do your best to avoid it at all costs.”

“Probably,” Ten admitted. “Do you have brothers and sisters?”

“Nope. Just me.”

“Ah, so that’s why you joined a frat. Everything makes sense now.”

Johnny shook his head at the jab, grinning. “What do you have against frats, anyway? I mean, other than the hazing and stuff—which my frat did not do, by the way. You seem a little hung up on it.”

Ten sobered as he thought about it. “Uh, I mean… I was an openly gay dance major? From another country? I don’t know that I had a lot in common with frat guys in college. The only time I interacted with them was to have sex, and even then it was always on the down-low.”

“They aren’t all just toxic masculinity and homophobia, man. Mine wasn’t.”       

Ten raised an eyebrow at him skeptically. “You’re telling me you were out to your frat, back in college?”

Johnny hesitated. “Well, kind of. I’m bisexual, so… I was mostly dating girls, at the time. There were just a lot more available. But my sexuality wasn’t a secret. It was never a big deal.”

Ten didn’t say anything, not convinced, and after a moment, Johnny said, “When I moved to New York, I didn’t have anyone. I felt so alone, and so fucking scared. And after I rushed, it was like… all of a sudden, I had this family. You know, when I was a freshman, my brothers would make me breakfast, and go shopping with me, and help me study. And that support never stopped, just evolved.”

Ten listened quietly, watching Johnny’s face in the low light of the living room as he remembered. “I’d just never had friends take care of me like that. In high school, I was always the one my friends would call for a ride home when they were drunk, you know? That was my role, and most of the time, I like being that person, but…”  

“You like taking care of people,” Ten said. “But you also need to be taken care of sometimes.”

Johnny blinked at him. “Yeah. I guess so.”

Ten bit his lip, grinning sheepishly. “Sorry that I made fun of your frat so much.”

Johnny smiled in amusement at the phrasing of the apology. “No, I get it. I just... really didn’t want you to think of me as someone who would be complicit in all that stereotypical fraternity shit.”

“I don’t,” Ten said quickly. “I didn’t. Not really. I just think we had really different college experiences.”

“Yeah, you still haven’t said where you went to school. Manhattan?”

Ugh, and Ten was still too sober to have this conversation, but he wasn’t going to lie to Johnny’s face. He took another big gulp of his whiskey. “Julliard.”

“Woah. Okay. You must be really good.”   

And yes, Ten was good, but he was also still incredibly bitter about the events of the past few months. That definitely hadn’t changed in the past twenty-four hours, and the last thing he wanted to do was talk about it. He downed the rest of his drink in one shot, not meeting Johnny’s gaze. “I’m going to get more whiskey.”

* * *

 

They decided to watch something on Netflix to pass the time, although choosing a show inevitably took a solid half hour of bickering.

“I will literally risk my death out in that blizzard if you make me watch Gilmore Girls, Johnny.”

“What, and Keeping Up with the Kardashians is better?”

“You don’t understand, it’s part of my _soul_ ,” Ten insisted.

They finally chose _The Umbrella Academy_ , which neither of them had seen yet. Johnny deposited several fluffy blankets onto the couch, and Ten quickly buried himself under them.

“Okay, I mean, I did mean for one of those to be mine, but—” Johnny laughed as Ten peeked his face out from the nest innocently, clutching the soft material up to his neck. “I think you need them more than I do.”

Because he was feeling generous, Ten gave up one of the blankets to Johnny, and they curled up on either end of the couch with their mugs of hot chocolate, watching one episode and then another, Ten and Johnny commenting on the parts they wanted to. It was good that they were both chatty during shows, Ten thought, because otherwise, Johnny would have killed him by halfway through episode one with the amount he had to say about the characters and the fashion and the music, and vice versa.

As it was, Ten had a nice time, as the two of them made each other laugh through their constant commentary. This was the kind of thing he could get used to doing on a lazy Sunday afternoon.

Spending time with Johnny was easy, in a way that Ten didn’t want to examine too closely. They were practically strangers, after all.

They managed to binge half the season of the show without meaning to, both of them getting way too involved in the story.

“Now, this is what I want in superhero stuff!” Johnny was saying as the credits rolled. “Fuck the Avengers.”

Ten gasped, putting a hand dramatically to his chest. “I _know_ I didn’t hear you say that just now.”

It was getting dark now, but the ground outside still glowed bright with the street lights reflecting against the snow. According to the weather channel, there was no sign of the blizzard letting up tonight; public transit was still down, and any travel was strongly discouraged until at least morning.

Ten was also a few drinks in, a gentle buzz softening the impact of the fact that he wasn’t going to be able to sleep in his own bed tonight. Johnny suggested boxed mac and cheese for dinner, as that seemed to be the only thing he had, and Ten amiably agreed, clutching his mug of now-straight whiskey, his usual healthy diet of vegetables and grains already out the window for the weekend.

As Johnny cooked the pasta, they went back and forth debating about the merits of the Avengers franchise, with Ten arguing that it was a beacon of hope that humanity could unite in spite of their differences, while Johnny thought that the movies were stupid and repetitive and lacked interesting characters—“They’re, like, almost all white, straight men! It’s boring. What’s the point?”—which left Ten seriously questioning Johnny’s taste in pop culture.

By the time they were both seated at the table, bowls of steaming mac and cheese in front of them, Ten was ready to die on this particular soapbox, not wanting to let the blatant lack of diversity ruin his enjoyment of superhero movies. Unfortunately, Johnny was also completely unwilling to back down. Ten was animatedly gesturing with his spoon as he passionately explained in no uncertain terms why he was right about this, only stopped by Johnny’s inexplicable little huff of laughter while Ten was mid-sentence. “What?”

“Sorry, I was just—is this our first fight?”

Ten opened his mouth, considered what he had been about to say, and they both dissolved into giggles at the sheer stupidity of their conversation. This is what happened when two tipsy nerds were stuck in a room together all day, Ten supposed.

“I think that was probably the, uh, conversation we had first thing this morning, actually,” Ten said between giggles, face dropping to the table as he looked at Johnny between his fingers. “Remember that?”

“Back when we just young whippersnappers,” Johnny reminisced, looking fondly into the distance. “I remember it like it was yesterday.”

That was entirely too much for a slightly drunk Ten, who collapsed into another fit of laughter as he hid his face in his crossed arms on the table. He looked up at Johnny’s confused face for long enough to choke out, “I have no idea what that means!”

It took a good five minutes before their laughter had subsided enough to eat their mac and cheese, which had now coagulated into a gooey, lukewarm mess. It did manage to soak up enough of the whiskey in Ten’s bloodstream to sober him up a little, thankfully, and by the end of the meal, he felt quite a bit more in control of his facilities.

“You mind if I use your shower? I feel super gross.” Ten ran a hand through his hair, scrunching his nose at the feeling.

“Go for it. You wanna borrow some clean clothes, too?”

Ten thought about that, wondering if that was crossing the line somehow. If that was the line, it seemed like they’d probably already crossed it in any number of other ways, so… “Alright. That’d be nice, thanks.”

When Ten emerged from the bathroom a while later, freshly showered and feeling about 100% better, Johnny was on the couch playing on his phone. Ten sidled over casually, towel still wrapped around neck to keep his wet hair from dripping on Johnny’s too-big hoodie, which Ten tried not to think about too much as he rolled the sleeves up so he could use his hands. Johnny looked up from his phone, snorting as he took in the sight of Ten drowning in his clothes. “Sorry, they were the smallest things I could find.”

“It’s fine,” Ten said, sitting down next to Johnny, close enough to feel his body heat. The shower had sobered him up almost completely, and now he felt like he didn’t know what to do with his limbs, suddenly feeling very cognizant of every move he made and the exact distance each one placed him from touching Johnny.

Their eyes met. Johnny swallowed. There was a long moment of silence, Ten’s heart beating loud in his ears. Johnny didn’t move, but he didn’t look away, either. Ten slowly reached out through the small space between them, laying his hand on Johnny’s chest. He could feel Johnny’s heart beating fast, too.

“Johnny?” Ten murmured, low but unwavering, not moving his hand.

“Yeah?” Johnny responded quietly, his voice a little rougher than it had been a few seconds before.

“Is this okay?”

 Johnny hesitated for only a moment before nodding. Ten leaned in, gauging the look on Johnny’s face as he went, to make sure he hadn’t totally misread the situation. Johnny was the one to close the remaining distance.

They hadn’t kissed last night, Ten remembered. It had felt too intimate for a hook-up. Now, it definitely felt pretty intimate, but it was different. Ten had kissed a lot of people in his life; he wasn’t used to feeling this vulnerable, stripped down to the sum of his parts.

He liked it.

 They only kissed for a few seconds, soft and sweet, before Johnny pulled away. Ten sucked in a sharp breath of air as he looked back at Johnny. He smiled, tugging playfully on Ten’s sleeve where his hand still rested against Johnny’s chest. “I guess you like wearing my clothes, huh?”

“Ugh, _no,_ ” Ten’s reaction was immediate as he laughed, pulling his hand back. Johnny caught it in both of his own, still playing with the sleeve. “Absolutely not.”

“No?” Johnny teased, leaning close to Ten again, almost close enough for a kiss, but not quite. Ten’s heart did a somersault.

Ten kissed Johnny again, this time longer, hotter. Johnny’s hands tugged him closer, and Ten took the initiative and climbed onto his lap, still kissing Johnny. By the time they broke away, they were gasping.

Johnny huffed out a laugh, fingers grasping at the material of Ten’s shirt, gazing up at him. “You sure about that?”

Ten had to take a moment to remember what they had been talking about. “Nope, your clothes don’t do anything for me. In fact, I kind of want to take them off. Would you be interested in helping?”

Johnny did, in fact, seem very interested.


	4. crazy for your chemicals

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> uhhhh i increased the rating??? literally just smut ahead, fair warning.   
> chapter title is "chemicals" by key

Johnny’s apartment was small enough that Ten could easily count the steps between the couch and the bed. Seven steps, Ten noted, because Johnny wasn’t even out of breath as he deposited Ten onto the bed, following him down, their lips never parting the entire trip--and, okay, the fact the Johnny could pick him up without breaking a sweat might be doing a little something for Ten.

“Damn,” Ten breathed as they broke apart, grabbing at Johnny’s shirt hem and easing it over his shoulders. “You work out, frat boy?”

Johnny let out a huff of laughter into Ten’s mouth as he kissed him again. “You have a problem with that?”

Ten inhaled sharply as Johnny rolled their clothed hips together, wrapping his legs around Johnny’s middle. “No complaints here.”

Ten’s shirt (technically Johnny’s) had already been abandoned on the living room floor, thrown off to the side blindly. Johnny was currently running his hands down the bare skin of Ten’s chest, and fuck, Ten wasn’t going to let Johnny take the lead here. That wasn’t Ten’s style.

He used Johnny’s moment of distraction to flip them over, so that he was now straddling Johnny, who was looking up at him in surprise, a little puzzled at how he’d gotten there.

“Well, shit, who works out now?” he said, gazing up at Ten in admiration. 

“Dancer’s thighs,” Ten smiled cockily, raising his eyebrows. “You haven’t seen nothing yet, babe.”

Johnny laughed breathlessly. “Where was all this last night?”

“I could ask you the same question,” Ten replied, feeling high off the way Johnny was looking at him. “Now, pants off.”

They worked together to maneuver Johnny’s jeans off efficiently, leaving him nearly bare except for his boxers. Ten gave Johnny’s body an appreciative once-over, eyes lingering on the tattoo on his ribs and the lean muscle across his chest and arms. Last night had been quite a different experience, lights off, neither of them taking any time to explore each other’s bodies in depth; it had been much more goal-oriented than what they were doing now, and Ten found himself enjoying the new perspective.

He ground down slowly, experimentally, eliciting a low sound of pleasure from Johnny. “Damn it, Ten, you’re killing me, here.”

“Yeah?” Ten tilted his head at Johnny as he did it again, Johnny’s hands coming up to grip Ten’s hips; neither of them could get much friction, through Ten’s sweats and Johnny’s underwear, but it was worth it for the way that Johnny’s breath hitched. “Oh, honey, I think you’ll take whatever I give you.”

Johnny looked up at him through lidded eyes. “Ten,” he murmured, pliant and wanting, and it sent a shiver down Ten’s spine. Johnny would do anything Ten asked of him right now, completely at Ten’s mercy, and that turned him on more than he’d like to admit.

The eye contact suddenly too much for Ten to handle, he leaned in to bite and lick at the sensitive skin on Johnny’s neck, kicking off his oversized sweats as he went. Johnny’s hands began to stray from Ten’s hips, roaming over his skin and dipping lower into his underwear. Ten muffled a high-pitched whine in Johnny’s neck as he felt a large hand start to fist his erection, struggling to continue his ministrations and biting down lightly on the junction of Johnny’s shoulder instead.

“Fuck, Johnny,” Ten whispered, pushing himself back into a sitting position and biting his lip. Johnny kept moving his hand steadily, not too fast but with just enough pressure to drive Ten crazy. Ten let himself bask in the pleasure for a few moments, then nudged Johnny’s hand away reluctantly. They was still far too much fabric between them, and there were other things that Ten wanted to do tonight.

When they were both completely divested of clothing, Johnny sat up against the headboard, pulling Ten in for a bruising kiss. Ten was pressed against Johnny chest-to-chest, and God, he wanted him so badly.

“Do you want to fuck me?” Ten said lowly into Johnny’s ear. This was new territory, for them, as they hadn’t gotten this far last night.

“First drawer,” Johnny managed, pupils dilated dark and intense in desire. Ten reached over and grabbed a bottle of lube from the nightstand, Johnny deftly plucking it from his fingers before he could do anything with it. “Slow down. I’m gonna make you feel good, just be patient.”

Ten liked the sound of that. But he wasn’t used to not getting his way. He was well aware he could be pushy in bed, but he knew what he liked, damn it, and yes, maybe he had trouble relinquishing control. “You know what to do with that, babe?”

Ten let himself be guided down, back hitting the mattress. He heard Johnny open the bottle. “I’d like to think I know a few things.”

Johnny’s fingers were a lot bigger than Ten’s; that was the first thing he noticed as Johnny worked one finger inside him, then two, scissoring them him open skillfully. It only took a minute before Ten was crying out as Johnny brushed against his prostate. Johnny just added another finger, steadily continuing to target that spot as Ten swore, “Oh my God, I’m ready. Just fuck me, come on.”

“You are literally the bossiest person I’ve ever slept with,” Johnny sounded amused, as he kept fucking his fingers in and out of Ten. “Why, you got somewhere to be?”

“Hilarious,” Ten bit out between moans, his breathing coming faster. Ten was starting to lose coherent thought, the pleasure building and building. “Damn it, Johnny!”       

Johnny smiled smugly as he stopped, pulling his fingers out of Ten. “And you doubted my abilities.”

Ten took a shaky breath as he tried to regulate his heart rate, his cock so hard it hurt. “You haven’t proven anything yet, darling.”

He reached for the condom that Johnny had left on the bedside table earlier, determined to take back some amount of control; he wanted to drive Johnny out of his mind.

Ten leaned in close to Johnny, reaching in between them stroke Johnny’s dick a few times before he rolled the condom on slowly. Johnny seemed to be enraptured by Ten’s movements, letting him take the lead and making those little noises now and then, deep in his throat, when Ten flicked his wrist in a way Johnny liked as he slicked up his cock with lube.

Satisfied with his preparations, Ten moved into Johnny’s lap. “You ready?”

“Please,” was the only confirmation Ten needed before he was pushing down, throwing his head back as he felt the stretch of Johnny’s dick inside him.

They both seemed to hold their breath, Ten dropping down a bit more, a bit more, until he was fully seated on Johnny’s cock. And damn, Ten had known that Johnny wasn’t small, but this was something else.

As Ten tried to get used to the feeling, Johnny wrapped his arms around Ten’s torso, pulling him closer and kissing the bare skin of Ten’s shoulder sweetly. “You okay?”

“Fuck, yes,” Ten answered, eyes still closed as he savored the stretch of it. He balanced himself by taking hold of Johnny’s shoulder’s, leveraging against the solid muscle he found there. He slowly raised himself up, then slammed back down, causing them both to moan.

They slowly but surely found a rhythm, with Johnny’s hands on Ten’s hips helping to guide his thrusts. Every move felt electrifying, like the pleasure was reverberating throughout Ten’s entire body. Johnny seemed similarly caught up in it, staring at Ten as if he held the answers to the universe.

They messily clashed tongues again, hot and desperate. Johnny groaned into Ten’s mouth as Ten ran his fingers through Johnny’s long hair, tugging a little. Ten grinned mischievously at the discovery, pulling a little harder and being rewarding with another low, wrecked sound. “You like that, babe?”

At the sight of Johnny coming apart just from Ten’s touch and words and body, Ten flushed with pride and pleasure. He wanted to fucking wreck Johnny. He ground down on Johnny’s dick, making sure Johnny could feel every single thing. “Yeah, you like it a little rough, don’t you, baby? You’d just let me take what I want from you, huh?”

Ten felt drunk on this, not even sure what he was saying as Johnny watched him hungrily, hanging on every word as Ten fucked himself on Johnny’s cock. He was getting close, movements starting to get sloppy and desperate, and, if the way that Johnny was bucking into him was any indication, Johnny was, too. “So good for me, honey, so good. Gonna make me come?”

“Yeah,” Johnny breathed eagerly, gripping Ten tighter and grinding his hips up into Ten. “Want you to feel good, Ten.”

And oh, Johnny’s dick was hitting just right inside him, hips faltering as he whined, unable to hold himself upright. “Johnny, fuck me,” he heard himself say, feeling a little like he was floating.

He felt Johnny’s hands on him, stroking the skin on his ribs reassuringly, before he felt himself be laid back, Johnny’s dick sliding back into him. “Yes, yes, baby,” Ten chanted in praise, climbing high to the point of no return as Johnny fucked into him just right. “So good, Johnny.”

He heard Johnny’s breath catch, and he reached a hand down to his own cock, needing something, anything, to push him over the edge. Johnny’s big hand came down to cover his own, guiding Ten’s touch, and that was all he needed, coming hard onto his chest with a high-pitched whine.

Johnny groaned in response, not slowing his thrusts as he fucked Ten through his orgasm. “Shit, you’re so fucking hot.”

Ten was boneless and sex-drunk as he came down from the high, but he was cognizant enough to smile lazily at Johnny, still rocking into him steadily as he chased his own orgasm. He looked at him through his eyelashes and tucked a stray hair behind his ear gently. “Come for me, baby.”

And God, Johnny did. Ten was enthralled as he watched Johnny hit that moment of bliss, pleased that he could make Johnny come like that with so little.

A few moments passed as Johnny came down, both of them breathing hard. Johnny leaned down and kissed Ten softly, sweetly, and Ten’s heart tugged a little with something he didn’t recognize. This was dangerous, he thought; so much room for error, in this delicate thing between them.

Johnny pulled out of Ten and flopped down beside him. “What do you think? Better than the first time?”

Ten huffed, still a bit dazed and having trouble remembering how to form a sentence, turning his head away slightly so that Johnny couldn’t see his face, uncertain about what he would see. “There’s always room for improvement.”

“Never happy,” Johnny replied with a laugh. “You have impossibly high standards, you know that?” When Ten didn’t respond, Johnny nudged him gently. “Hey, you alright over there?”

Ten turned to look at him, taking in Johnny’s sweaty, flushed face and wanting desperately to kiss him again. He controlled himself. “Yeah,” Ten said. “I’m just still a little out of it, I think.”

Johnny flashed him a dopey smile, and heaved himself out of bed to clean up, bringing a wet towel back for Ten. So considerate, thought Ten. Johnny was just so fucking nice; there must be a catch.

Johnny crawled back into bed next to him, going to wipe Ten’s skin down with the towel; Ten intercepted him, grabbing the towel himself and cleaning up. Johnny didn’t look at all startled at the sudden movement, accepting the boundary without question and relaxing on his side. Ten could feel his eyes on him as he discarded the cloth on the nightstand, and he looked over. “What?”

Johnny considered him. “Just thinking.”

Ten curled up on his side, face-to-face with Johnny. “Dangerous game.”

Johnny cracked a smile. “Yeah.”

Ten waited for him to elaborate, then scooted closer a little closer, poking him lightly in the chest. “You’re the type of guy that likes talking during sex, huh? I should have expected that.”

That seemed to break Johnny out of his head for a moment as he flushed red, laughing and putting his hands over his face. “I liked hearing you talk. I liked that a lot.”

And Ten maybe liked seeing Johnny blush. “I could tell. That’s good to know. I can do a lot with that information.”

Johnny studied him with an expression that Ten couldn’t quite identify, and Ten suddenly felt far too exposed, far too seen, an echo of how he felt when he’d kissed Johnny on the couch earlier. It was entirely unfamiliar, this thing, and Ten felt the need to squirm under Johnny’s gaze. “You are something else, Ten.”

Ten batted his eyelashes flirtatiously, needing to make this less serious, less real. “I’ll take that as a compliment, Johnny.” 


	5. and we'll pretend

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> chapter title from "pretend" by goody grace

“How do you know all that stuff about, like toxic masculinity and that kind of shit?”

Ten had his head on Johnny’s chest, absentmindedly tracing his fingers over the tattoo on Johnny’s ribs. It was intricate and mesmerizing, geometric patterns abstract and a little dizzying as they made a whole picture. He wondered what it had felt like, ink being injected into his skin.

Ten didn’t know quite how he’d ended up in Johnny Seo’s bed twice in twenty-four hours, but he wasn’t mad about it.

“What?” said Johnny, sounding a little drowsy.

“Like what you said during breakfast, about women and queer people. That stuff. Where’d you learn all that?”

“I minored in gender and sexuality studies. Why?” Johnny answered, confusion clear in his voice. Ten mentally sorted through his words carefully before he said them, not wanting to be lost in translation or inadvertently offend Johnny. 

“I guess I just… hadn’t thought a lot about it before. I was kind of surprised to hear it from you, to be honest.”

Luckily, Johnny didn’t seem offended, laughing softly. “Yeah, I get that a lot. In college, people always gave me a double-take when I showed up in classes about feminism. A professor once tried to give me directions to the business school.”

“Ouch,” Ten murmured, still tracing the dark lines of the tattoo. “It’s nice, though. You’re a special kind of guy, Johnny.”

“Uh… thanks, I think,” Johnny laughed, lightly running a hand over the dip of Ten’s back between his shoulder blades. Ten shivered, picking his head up to look at Johnny, who was already looking at him, strange expression on his face. “You too, though. I don’t think I’ve ever met someone quite like you.”

Ten rolled his eyes, smiling and reaching up to push Johnny’s hair out of his face. “I bet you’ve used that line a hundred times, Mr. _You’re-the-Only-Ten-I-See_.”

“Hey, I thought it was very clever!”

“Yeah, for a toddler. For fuck’s sake, Johnny,” Ten shook his head, hiding his smile in Johnny’s neck. It wasn’t that he was smitten, he thought: certainly not. Just those post-coital hormones kicking in, he was sure. “I still haven’t completely forgiven you for that.”

Johnny touched his face, coaxing him gently out from hiding so they could look at each other. “I guess I’ll just have to make it up to you.”

“I think you’ll have to,” Ten agreed, brushing their lips together lightly for a moment. He pulled back, enjoying having Johnny’s full attention as he tracked Ten’s every movement. “You can start now, if you want.”

* * *

 

“What are you doing on Grindr, anyway?” he asked Johnny. “You don’t seem like the type for casual.”

Johnny was quiet for so long Ten thought he’d fallen asleep. He finally answered, “I’m not.”

Ten furrowed his brow in confusion. “I guess I’m just curious about why you were looking for a hook-up when you could have anyone you wanted in real life. What changed?”

Johnny tapped a pattern out against Ten’s knuckles. “Just easier, I suppose.”

While Ten didn’t want to pry, he had poor impulse control and a strong propensity towards nosiness. “Easier than what?”

Johnny glanced at him, then back down at Ten’s hand, where it was resting against his stomach. He laced their fingers together, pressing a kiss to Ten’s wrist. “I don’t know, honestly. I’m starting to think I was wrong.”

"No, but…” Ten insisted, wanting to understand what Johnny meant. “Like, I get it, you know? Not wanting a relationship.”

Another pause. “It’s not that,” Johnny sounded strange.

“So what is it?”

Johnny sighed, tone becoming terse. “I don’t want to talk about this, okay, Ten?”

“Okay,” Ten was confused at the reaction, but he knew he had pushed too far. “Sorry.”

He felt Johnny’s hand brush at his hair lightly. “No, I just… let’s just talk about something else.”

“Okay,” Ten said again, completely at a loss. There was a tense silence, before Ten offered, “My mother is nosy, too. You can blame her.”

“Yeah?” Johnny seemed more at ease now, his normal relaxed tone seeping back into his voice as though nothing had happened. “Tell me about her.”

Ten didn’t know what he’d said wrong, but he couldn’t blame Johnny for not wanting to talk about something when the two of them weren’t anything, not friends, not boyfriends—barely even acquaintances. Ten found himself needing to remind himself of this, for the first time all evening.

“I have a better idea,” Ten said, carding his fingers through Johnny’s hair. His eyes lingered on Johnny’s neck and he wondered what it would like after he spent some time kissing it. Johnny smiled at him, always so sweet, and let him do what he wanted.

 

* * *

 

“Can I ask you a question?”

“Mhm,” Ten stretched out languidly, nearly asleep.

“Why did you freak out earlier when I asked about Juilliard?”

Ten’s eyes snapped open. Johnny was lying on his side, head propped up by an elbow as he looked over at Ten with curiosity. Ten sat up, trying to disentangle himself from the sheets.

“You don’t have to answer if you don’t want to,” Johnny said, after a long silence as Ten wrestled with his thoughts. “Really. I don’t want you to be uncomfortable.”

“No, it’s okay.” Ten curled in on himself, crossing his legs and wrapping a throw blanket around his shoulders as he leaned his head back against the headboard. “I haven’t really talked about it, is all.”

“Why?” Johnny asked, and something about his tone put Ten at ease. No judgment, just curiosity, plain and simple.

Ten looked down at his feet, crossed in front of him. “It’s… embarrassing, I guess? I don’t know.”

Johnny was silent, but he reached over and put a hand on Ten’s knee, rubbing reassuring circles on the calloused skin there.

Ten took a breath and continued. “So I dated this guy in my program, for… like, two years? He was a dancer too, in the same year as me. We were gonna try out for the same company, when we graduated. It was basically my dream job.”

He didn’t feel the same overwhelming surge of anger or hurt or bitterness that he usually did when he thought about the events of last year; something about sitting here in Johnny’s bed, Johnny’s hand on his knee, calm and quiet, dulled the feeling to a mild ache rather than a roar. “I got an offer; he didn’t. I was so excited, but… then he asked me if I wanted to leave New York with him, go someplace like Tokyo or London and start fresh.”

He bit his lip, remembering. “And I… I don’t think I’d ever even considered putting a relationship above my career before. My priority has literally always been dance. Always.”

“You told him no,” Johnny guessed softly.

“I told him yes,” Ten corrected, closing his eyes. “I guess… I just kind of thought that my career was taking off, and maybe I should try to make room for a life with someone in all of that, before it was too late. I turned down the job, and I told him I’d follow him wherever he wanted to go.”

He cleared his throat. “So that happened, and a few days later he got offered the position that I turned down.”

Johnny’s hand stilled in its methodical movement. Ten smiled sourly, looking up at the ceiling. “He didn’t have the balls to tell me that he’d taken it until after graduation. By then, all of the spots at the major companies in town had already been filled for the season.”

“Fuck,” was Johnny’s only response.

“Yeah,” Ten agreed. “And I just… felt so stupid. So stupid. It was so out of character for me to put a boy ahead my dancing, and… there was a time that I couldn’t even recognize myself. I’d worked so hard to get to that point, and I threw it all away.”

“He didn’t fucking deserve it,” Johnny said quietly, fiercely. “It wasn’t stupid. It was brave. And he wasn’t. He didn’t deserve you.”

Ten smiled in spite of himself. “Thanks, Johnny.”

Johnny tapped his fingers on Ten’s leg. “Can you get another job in a few months? Like, when a new season starts or something?”

“Yeah. That’s the plan. It’s a lot easier straight out of school, though,” Ten said. “When you have recent performances you can show off.”

“Hmm…” Johnny said thoughtfully. “As in video evidence? Can I see?”

Ten flicked his forehead lightly. “Let me think. No.”

“What? Come on, you can’t pretend to be shy _now_ ,” Johnny wheedled, wiggling his eyebrows suggestively. “I’ve spent a good twenty-four hours with you, and I think we both know that isn’t you, baby.”

“Oh, is it baby now? Not dude?” Ten laughed. “Is that one reserved for the third time you sleep with someone?”

“Yes,” Johnny informed him matter-of-factly, smirking, and, oh, Ten was entirely too gay for this. “And you’re trying to change the subject.”

“I can’t show you my dancing for your own good,” Ten told him, still a little flustered from hearing Johnny call him _baby_. “It would make you fall head-over-heels in love with me. You would be ruined for anyone else.”  
“Well, that doesn’t sound so bad,” Johnny teased, skirting a hand up the bare skin of Ten’s thigh, and damn, did Ten need Jesus.

“Ugh, fine, maybe later,” Ten relented, letting himself be drawn back into Johnny’s magnetic field as he wrapped his arms around Johnny’s neck, hands running down his body. “But don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

 

* * *

 

The night was passing slowly and quickly at the same time, Ten and Johnny occupying their own little bubble of space and time that was totally unlike the real world. It was late now, hours passed wrapped up in each other’s kisses and bodies and words. Ten had even given Johnny the information to find one of Ten’s Julliard projects on Youtube, and forced him to watch it with headphones so that Ten could pretend it wasn’t happening, glancing surreptitiously at Johnny’s face every so often to gauge his reaction. Not that he cared what Johnny thought. But still.

 Johnny maintained a maddeningly good poker face as he watched Ten dance to Nicki Minaj, totally unreadable apart from some wide eyes or amused smiles, until the moment when he threw the phone down and showered Ten with praise and sweet comments and gentle kisses to his jaw: (“Holy fuck, that was amazing, I’ve never been so attracted to you.”)

It was weird, Ten supposed, that he could know someone for barely twenty-four hours and already feel this way, like he and Johnny had known each forever when they were technically barely more than strangers. Granted, spending four of those hours in bed--awake--probably helped, with their touches being interspersed with murmured conversations about their jobs and their friends and their secrets. Their lives. Ten didn’t think he’d talked this honestly to anyone for a long time.         

* * *

 

“So what do you want, Johnny? For the future?” Ten remembered asking as he drowsily played with Johnny's fingers absently, both of them fighting to stay awake. There was a long pause.

“I don’t know. To be able to pay my rent on time?”

“That’s a boring answer.”

“Yeah. I guess I haven’t figured that one out yet.”

Ten sighed in contentment, cuddling closer into Johnny’s body heat as he drifted off. “Yeah, me neither.”

He’d felt Johnny drawing shapes into his palm as he let himself fall asleep.

* * *

  
Ten woke up at 3 AM to his phone going off incessantly. Never a good sign. 

He guess he’d forgotten to turn it to silent, but it wasn’t any near him and he hadn’t checked it in hours. Probably for the best.

He reluctantly pulled himself out of the warm bed, stumbling around the room like he was drunk trying to find the phone in the dark without waking Johnny. He finally located it on the dresser, shushing Johnny when he blearily mumbled a question in his half-asleep state. He pulled on the first sweatshirt he could find, suddenly freezing, as he unlocked his phone. The group chat was for some reason very active--this seemed a little late, even for them--and he had multiple missed calls from both Sicheng and Taeyong.

He blinked, suddenly much more awake. Had there been an emergency? Was everyone okay? Making sure Johnny had gone back to sleep, he slipped out of the bedroom and out to the kitchen, reading back through the texts too quickly to make sense of them immediately.

            **Taeyong** : Ten? Are you still at that guy’s place?  
            **Taeyong:** Johnny Seo, right? He’s friends with Jaehyun

            **Taeyong** : Jae happened to mention that his friend was in this crazy situation and I was like woah my friend is also in that same situation

            **Hendery** : hyung does this need to be in the group chat? I’m trying to sleep

           **Taeyong:** Hush, child, this is important

            **Hendery** : oh my god i’m nineteen, mom

            **Taeyong** : anyway, the main thing is

            **Taeyong:** Jae says that Johnny has a girlfriend?

            **Taeyong:** Like a serious long-term girlfriend

            **Taeyong:** Or at least he did as of a few days ago

            **Taeyong:** Idk, Jae got kind of weird about it when he realized we’re friends, and he wouldn’t tell me anything else

            **Taeyong:** but he seemed super surprised at the fact you guys slept together

            **Sicheng** : i’ll fight him! Ten, send me his address

            **Lucas:** sign me the fuck up. also could someone catch me up i dunno what’s happening who are we fighting

          **Hendery:** you’re not going to fight him, there might be a perfectly reasonable explanation

         **Taeyong** : no, i think sicheng has the right idea, tbh

            **Taeyong** : if he was hooking up with you and you didn’t know that’s seriously shady

            **Taeyong:** sorry to spring this on you like this, ten, but you weren’t answering your phone

            **Taeyong:** i hope you’re okay

            **Hendery:** :((((

 

He had to read the texts three times before he could feel confident he understood what they said. Was something getting lost in translation? He didn’t want to believe it; he felt his stomach plummet, cold dread replacing the lightness that he’d felt when he’d gone to sleep. It couldn’t be true. Johnny couldn’t have a girlfriend. That would mean that Johnny was cheating on some poor girl. With Ten. But why would his friends lie? Taeyong wouldn’t, Ten knew with certainty. 

The dread was quickly followed by white-hot anger. He’d fucking known that Johnny was too good to be true. He had been stupid enough to be taken in by the entire thing Johnny had going, his stupid hair and his stupid smile and his stupid tattoos. Ten knew that the other shoe always dropped, and he’d gone and let himself be swept away anyway.

The snow had slowed, Ten realized as he stared out the kitchen window, hands gripping the edge of the counter so hard his knuckles turned white. It looked like the street had been partially plowed already, meaning that Ten could just leave, no explanation, not even a wave goodbye. He could walk out of here with whatever pride he had left. It was tempting; it was probably what Johnny deserved.

But at the same time, there was a part of Ten that craved the confrontation, wanted to yell at Johnny and demand answers, make him feel like shit for taking advantage of Ten’s vulnerability. For making Ten trust him when he was so clearly a fucking liar.

He walked back into the bedroom, not attempting to be remotely quiet now as he flipped the light switch, filling the room with light. He didn’t look at Johnny as he roused, mumbling, “Ten? What’s wrong?” and he didn’t look at Johnny while he threw open the closet doors.

And Ten didn’t want to admit to himself the sinking feeling he felt all over again as he stared at the clothes; on one side hung Johnny’s large sweatshirts and button-downs--and on the other, women’s coats and blouses and dresses. In a sort of daze, Ten numbly checked one of the tags on a Chanel sweater: size two. Definitely not Johnny’s, then.

Johnny was saying something, but Ten didn’t hear him, blood rushing in his ears. Why in the world had he wanted to confront Johnny? This was humiliating. He couldn’t even turn around; he didn’t want to hear Johnny’s excuses.

He felt Johnny behind him, reaching a hand out for Ten’s shoulder. “Don’t touch me,” Ten hissed, jerking away. He turned his face away, swallowing hard.

He heard Johnny say, “I don’t understand.”

He barked out a humorless laugh, feeling a little hysterical as he finally looked at Johnny, wanting to see his reaction. “We have mutual friends.”

And yes, that was it. Johnny’s face fell, and Ten knew that there weren’t any excuses forthcoming. There wasn’t an explanation that would save him.

“Where is she?”

Johnny stared at him for a moment, eyebrows knit together, then looked down at the floor. “California.”

Ten nodded, kind of wanting to punch something. He grit his teeth, taking a slow breath in an attempt to steady himself. “Right.”

“She’s not--we’re not--”

“Don’t,” Ten interrupted. “Just don’t.”

Johnny went silent, at a loss. After a moment, he said, “I’m sorry.”

Ten was exhausted. He just wanted to go home. “That doesn’t mean anything to me.”

He gathered up his things quickly, pulling on some clothes and giving Johnny a wide radius as he stood silent, not moving.

“The snow--” Johnny remembered. “You shouldn’t go out there--just… wait for a bit.”

“I’ll be fine,” Ten told him coldly. “I’m going home.”

Johnny looked pained. “Ten, it’s… 3 AM. You can wait here until morning at least. Please.”

Ten gave him a long, hard stare, trying not to think about how he had been whispering all of his secrets to this man only hours previously. “Bye, Johnny.”

And that was it.

Leaving Johnny standing in the middle of his apartment, Ten slammed the door without a backwards glance. He hurried down the stairs two at a time, trying to put as much distance as possible between himself and Johnny before he did something stupid like cry, or punch a wall.

By the time he was at the apartment building’s front entry, he was barely holding it together. He threw the door open easily this time, though--thank God for small miracles--and found the city outside to be calm and quiet, only a few sparkling flakes of snow drifting gently down to earth. The blizzard seemed to be over. He looked around, trying to get his bearings; nothing looked familiar.

He had no fucking idea where he was.

He grabbed his phone from his back pocket, and called Sicheng, who picked up almost immediately.

“Ten? Where are you?”

Ten closed his eyes, comforted by the familiar cadence of his roommate’s voice. His throat tightened. “Can you come get me?”

“I’ll be right there,” Sicheng said. Ten heard rustling, then the jangling of keys. “Are you okay?”

A strong gust of cold wind hit him, and Ten shivered, even in his down jacket and scarf. He realized that he was still wearing Johnny's sweatshirt. “I’m sending you my location.”

“Ten--”

“See you soon.”

He hung up, sent his friend his phone’s GPS signal, and started walking.


	6. tell me something

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> chapter title: lifeline by amber liu (any opportunity to rep my girl please go support her)

It was Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving was a rather strange American holiday, Ten thought; the only traditions involved eating lots of food and being grateful, which he supposed were solid traditions, but he didn’t understand why it constituted an entire day where nobody worked.

He usually wouldn't complain about a day off. Today, however, he itched to spend the day in the studio. All of his students were on break this week, his co-workers gone for vacation, so he'd had it to himself the past few days, practicing for hours and hours uninterrupted the way he'd been able to in college. 

Sicheng had berated him for being anti-social, however, so here he was.

He let himself be lulled by the bustle of his friends laughing and bickering around him as they prepared the table. Taeyong had barricaded himself in the kitchen with only Sicheng as his assistant, claiming that he was the only one of them trustworthy enough to be around the food and neither 1.) eat it, nor 2.) set it on fire.

In all honesty, probably true.

Taeyong’s apartment was much tidier than Ten and Sicheng’s; Ten usually struggled to identify any signs of someone living here, much less multiple twenty-something-year-old someones. It was truly a testament to Taeyong’s will, constantly cleaning up after Doyoung and Lucas.

There wasn’t really room for the eight of them in here, but they made it work; it was better than cramming all of them in Ten’s place, or even worse, Kun and Hendery’s, which Ten was pretty sure was actually a broom closet disguised as an apartment.

Truly, he wouldn't have wanted to miss this, no matter what he'd told his roommate. It was chaos, but it was good chaos. For one thing, very few of them actually knew anything about how American Thanksgiving was supposed to be celebrated, as they had mostly gotten their information from “Friends,” so they had developed a hodgepodge of Thai, Chinese, Korean, and Japanese traditions with a strong undercurrent of “broke college student.” It was good; they ate well, since Taeyong had taken full control of the meal planning and cooking three years ago after the fated Oven Incident of 2016 of which they were never to speak of again.

And it distracted Ten. There was little time to wallow about the past on Thanksgiving, ironically, at least not on the bad things, when they didn’t have enough wine and started playing a game of Twister to determine who was sober enough to go get more (probably a bad barometer, since half of them were professional dancers). When Yuta started singing loudly along to Mariah Carey, the rest of the group making increasingly desperate bargains to get him to stop, it meant Ten wasn’t thinking about Johnny.

It had been a week since the blizzard, and Ten was done being sad about boys.

They all sucked, apparently, and that was that.

“I think you’re being swindled,” Ten observed, as Doyoung agreed to let Yuta use his car and Yuta kept singing joyfully. “He’s going to keep doing that as long as you keep giving him stuff.”     

"It’s true,” Sicheng nodded, flitting out from the kitchen briefly to place a dessert on the table. “Yuta employs many of the techniques my three-year-old niece does when he’s been drinking. And he will remember afterwards. Be careful what you promise him.”

Yuta blew a kiss in Sicheng’s direction, and Sicheng promptly returned to the kitchen at the sound of Taeyong’s raised voice. Sicheng’s sage advice didn’t interrupt Yuta’s rendition of “All I Want for Christmas is You,” but it did cause the poor boys to wise up a little.

Ten drifted into the kitchen, searching for a clean glass for Hendery, who’d arrived late. Taeyong and Sicheng appeared busy at work, but they were also arguing about something; Ten heard Sicheng’s quiet voice say something irritably as he entered the room. They cut off their conversation abruptly when they saw Ten. Weird, but okay. Taeyong seemed stressed, as usual, but he went back right to stuffing the turkey expertly, while Sicheng continued to follow his directions making kimchi fried rice.

“Hey, Ten, you need something?” Taeyong asked.

“Just grabbing a glass,” Ten answered, suspicious, glancing at the pair out of the corner of his eye as he reached up into a cabinet. “Hendery’s here, by the way.”

“Oh, great.” Taeyong wasn’t making eye contact, but that could be because he was very focused on the meal preparation. Ten supposed he should give him the benefit of the doubt, but he found that he’d been having some trust issues lately.

“Everything okay in here?” Ten watched as Sicheng gave him a funny look. He wondered what they’d been talking about when he’d come in. “You guys need any help?”

“Nope, I think we’re good in here, thanks!” Weird. Ten wasn’t sure if he was becoming more paranoid, but Taeyong’s voice had definitely gone up at least an octave just now. Sicheng was still watching him as Ten left with the glass.

An hour of impromptu karaoke later, the food was ready, the table was set, and they had plenty of alcohol. Taeyong was still double-checking and fretting around the table, but everything looked amazing. “Taeyong, chill. We’re good. Sit down with us.”

“Um,” Taeyong scratched his arm nervously, then started messing with his hair. “I gotta tell you something.”

Kun cocked his head at Taeyong. “You okay, buddy?”

Just then, the doorbell rang. Taeyong appeared as though he was seconds away from having a panic attack. He blurted, “Ten, I invited Jaehyun. I’m sorry. I just, we’re dating, and I--I didn’t want it to be awkward, so I procrastinated telling you, and then he asked if he could bring Johnny, and—”

“ _What?”_

“Apparently there was some sort of misunderstanding! I didn’t want to ruin Thanksgiving, but Jae said he just felt really bad about what he said and wanted to fix it,” Taeyong sped through, stumbling over his words a little.

Ten looked around at the table, dumbstruck, ready for his friends to all leap to his defense. Nobody seemed surprised. “Oh my God. Did all of you know about this?”

Hendery shrugged, avoiding eye contact. “We thought you wouldn’t come if you knew.”

Ten had the worst friends in the entire world. He raised his voice. “Umm, yeah, of course I wouldn’t have! He’s an asshole! I can’t believe you let him come here!”

“It was more complicated than we thought?” Lucas tried, unusually timid. “Can you just hear him out?”

“No!” Ten was aware he was being dramatic, the winces clear on his friends’ faces, but he couldn’t calm himself down. What was wrong with them? They were the ones that had told him about Johnny in the first place.

Sicheng wasn’t saying anything, arms crossed and glaring at Taeyong from across the table. So this must have been what they were arguing about in the kitchen earlier.

Taeyong looked like he was about to cry, stressed beyond belief, and Ten felt a little bad until he remembered that Taeyong was the problem. Taeyong said quietly, “Jaehyun isn’t going away, Ten. He’s my boyfriend; I trust him. And Johnny is one of Jae’s best friends. Please, you need to listen to what he has to say.”

Ten huffed, crossing his arms. He looked around at his friends indignantly, finding that he didn’t appear to have any allies in this. Sicheng clearly didn't agree with the ambush portion of the plan, but he wasn't stepping in. “Fine,” he said, raising his voice loud enough that he hoped he could be heard through the door. “But he’s not eating with us.”

He rose and stalked dramatically to the door, flinging it open. Outside was a guy who Ten could only assume was Jaehyun, nearly as tall as Johnny and brandishing a bottle of wine and flowers in front of him. He looked nice enough, Ten supposed, if only he wasn’t friends with a cheater.

And beside him was Johnny, the image of innocence in his denim jacket and white sneakers. He stood a ways back from the door, hands in his pockets and eyes wide as he saw Ten.

Taeyong had followed close behind him, beckoning Jaehyun into the apartment with the expediency of someone rescuing a child from a lion’s enclosure at the zoo. Jaehyun smiled awkwardly at Ten on the way past, but moved quickly. Ten rolled his eyes, and reluctantly stepped out into the hall, closing the door behind him.

“Shouldn’t you be celebrating the holiday with your girlfriend?” Ten asked cooly.

Johnny shifted uncomfortably, but maintained steady eye contact with Ten as he replied, “I don’t have a girlfriend.”

Ten let out a vicious laugh. “Oh, okay! Guess your friend in there is a fucking liar, then!”

He was nominally aware that their friends, including Jaehyun, could probably hear them, particularly at Ten’s current volume, but he didn’t have it in him to care right now. Johnny sighed, scrubbing his face with his hands tiredly. “He didn’t know. It’s… complicated.”

Ten raised an eyebrow, crossing his arms. “I’m listening.”

Johnny took a breath. “She was my college girlfriend. We dated for about three years. We broke up over a month ago.”

Ten couldn’t believe what he was hearing; it didn’t make any sense. He scoffed, “If that’s true, then why the fuck would your best friend think you were still in a relationship?”

“Because we still hadn’t told anyone we’d broken up.” Johnny seemed so genuine; it was throwing Ten off. There was no fucking way Johnny was telling the truth. “We were going to be in our friends’ wedding as the best man and the maid of honor. We didn’t want to ruin the wedding with a messy break-up and make it awkward for everyone. She left for an internship in San Francisco right after, so it wasn’t hard to act like we were just long-distance.”

“What?” Ten was puzzled, shaking his head. “So you… pretended to be together for all that time? That’s crazy.”

“It wasn’t like that,” Johnny insisted. “We don’t hate each other, we just weren’t in love anymore. We hadn’t been for a long time, honestly, and we just didn’t want to admit it.” He paused. “It made sense, at the time. We were going to tell our friends after the wedding, which was this weekend. She’s flying back for it, and that’s when she was gonna pick up the rest of her stuff from my place. But obviously, it came out a bit early.”

Ten stared at him, completely caught off guard as he tried to poke holes in Johnny’s story. It… kind of did make sense, in a weird way, Ten had to admit. He wasn’t sure what to think, feeling suddenly off-balance. “But… why didn’t you tell me this the other night, when I was accusing you of cheating?”

Johnny shook his head, looking down. “I tried, but… I didn’t know how to explain it, I guess, without you thinking I was trying to make excuses.” His eyes flickered back to Ten’s. “It’s a weird story, I know. It sounds like a lie even to me. But you can talk to Wendy, if you want. She can back all of this up.”

This was hands down one of the craziest stories Ten had ever heard. But it did match what Ten knew about Johnny, his love for his friends, the way he seemed to be so careful about everyone’s feelings but his own. Ten surprised even himself as he said, “I believe you.”

Johnny’s eyes widened, hope flickering through them. “You do?”

Ten nodded. “I guess I’m… uh, sorry, for calling you all those names.” 

Johnny looked puzzled, eyebrow raised. “What? You didn’t.”        

Ten smiled sheepishly, reaching up to twist his cartilage piercing nervously. “Yeah, I did. You just weren’t there. I said some really bad stuff about you to my friends.”         

Johnny laughed, light and relieved. “I probably deserved it.” He hesitantly took a step closer to Ten. “I’m the one that should apologize to you. I should have been upfront about all this. The situation was just so unexpected, and I didn’t know…” Johnny stopped, biting his lip.           

“You didn’t know what?” Ten inquired softly, a little fixated on Johnny’s mouth.   

“I didn’t know how much I would like you,” Johnny finished, voice firm as he seemed to make a decision. “I know we’re doing things in a weird order, but… Do you maybe want to try this thing out? See where it goes?”

Ten felt like a teenager, a warm, fluttery feeling in his gut at Johnny’s words. He forced himself to tamp it down and think rationally for a moment. He didn’t know if this was a good idea.

“We barely know each other,” Ten stalled playfully, but he was moving closer, caught up in the gravity of Johnny’s presence. “How would we--we met on Grindr, for fuck’s sake!”

And Johnny was gently taking his hands and pulling him in, intoxicating him, distilling his doubts down with a single sentence: “It’ll be a really great story someday, though.”

And no, Ten really couldn’t argue with that. Wrapping his arms around Johnny’s neck, he kissed him, enjoying the slow sweetness of it. If he was breathless after they pulled apart, well, he would blame it on the lack of oxygen and not the heady rush of feelings running through him.

“Do you think I can have your number now?” Johnny whispered, hands a steadying grip on Ten’s hips.

“I think that can be arranged,” Ten replied.

     

* * *

      

When Ten led Johnny back into Taeyong’s apartment, they were greeted by whoops and cat-calls, and Ten, usually a whore for attention, kind of wanted to die a little. He flipped off Lucas, who was making a variety of strange and inappropriate noises, and pulled up a chair for Johnny.

“So,” Taeyong said, leaning forward in his chair. “How’d it go?”

“Ugh,” Ten groaned, regretting all of his choices in friends. “This is Johnny, everybody.”

“Hi, Johnny,” chorused the group, all sitting down at the table and ready to eat. Johnny waved, remarkably calm for the situation he’d just been put in. Sicheng was silent, squinting across the table at him suspiciously. “So you’re not an asshole? You’re sure?”

Johnny smiled graciously, shrugging. “I mean, I’d like to think so?”

Ten rolled his eyes. “That’s my roommate, Sicheng. Don’t let him intimidate you.”

“I’m feeling a little intimidated, to be honest.”

“Good,” Sicheng deadpanned, pointing at his eyes then at Johnny’s in the universal signal of ‘I’m watching you.’

“Oh my God.” This was worse than bringing Johnny home to his parents, Jesus. His dad would never embarrass him like this.

Johnny just smiled nervously. Jaehyun reached around Taeyong to pat him on the back comfortingly. Lucas watched this interaction thoughtfully, before deciding, “You know, I like you. We’re gonna be friends.”

“Twelve hours ago you were plotting his murder,” Hendery stage-whispered across the table.

Lucas glared at him. “Well, now he’s gonna be my friend.”

“You have no choice in the matter. Just let it happen,” Kun informed Johnny.

“Okay, can we fucking eating please?” Ten said loudly, interrupting whatever fuckery was happening on the other side of the table. “Taeyong made this lovely meal for us, and it’s getting cold.”

They did, predictably distracted by the prospect of food. They accepted Johnny’s presence without question, and enjoyed a delicious Thanksgiving meal, eating far too much.

After dinner, when everyone was clearing plates and passing out on couches, Ten volunteered for dish duty, and Jaehyun offered to help, wanting to giving Taeyong a break. This left the two of them alone in the kitchen; they still hadn’t really talked.

Jaehyun seemed to be the kind of guy that put others at ease, though, because he didn’t seem to feel awkward at all about immediately asking Ten about his job, and his family, and all the other small talk things. They chatted easily for a few minutes, and then there was a lull in conversation as Ten scrubbed a pot and handed it to Jaehyun to dry.

He could hear Lucas, Taeyong, Sicheng and Johnny in the living room cheering and arguing and being generally noisy as they played Mario Kart; it seemed like his friends had accepted Johnny into their midst quickly and easily.

“Look,” Jaehyun said, swallowing. “I’m really sorry about what happened. It was totally my fault, and I shouldn’t have told Taeyong in the first place.”

Ten furrowed his eyebrows, taken aback. “What? It wasn’t your fault. I’m glad you told Taeyong, in a weird way. I don’t want you to feel like you can’t be honest with your boyfriend just because I’m with Johnny.”

Jaehyun nodded slowly. “Yeah. I’ve just felt bad about what happened. I just… Wendy is the sweetest person, and I couldn’t believe that Johnny would do that to her, because, like, he is, too. But obviously, then I found out what really happened, and... Johnny was really upset about it.”

Ten looked up from his dishes, surprised by the change in Jaehyun’s tone. “He was?”

“I mean, he didn’t blame me either, but yeah,” Jaehyun answered, eyeing him contemplatively. “He really likes you.”

Ten felt a rush of pleasure at that, smiling down at the soapy water in the sink. “I really like him, too.”

Jaehyun looked conflicted. “Johnny’s just… he’s more fragile than he seems. He needs someone who’s gonna be on his side.”

This was quickly developing into a very weird conversation. Ten didn’t quite know what the best answer was here, but he tried to be as honest as possible. “I don’t know the future. I can’t promise anything, but I can tell you that I would never do anything to hurt him if I could avoid it. I want to be on his side.”

 Jaehyun seemed to accept this answer, smiling. “Good. I’m glad.”

They both looked up as Johnny walked in, eyebrows raised at the sudden silence. “Hey. You talking about me?” He was joking, Ten could see, but there was genuine curiosity in Johnny’s eyes.

“Yes,” Ten admitted, lips twisting into a rueful smile.

Jaehyun grabbed his towel and threw it at Johnny, who caught it in the air. “Wanna tap in?”

Johnny nodded, slapping Jaehyun’s shoulder as he went past, who waved at Ten as he left the room. Johnny was quiet for a moment, coming to stand beside Ten, leaning back against the counter. “Everything okay?”

Ten thought about it. It had been a slightly awkward conversation, he supposed, but he was glad that Johnny had people like that in his corner; Jaehyun was clearly a good friend.

He stopped washing the dish, taking his hands out of the soapy water. “Yeah, I think so. Jaehyun seems really great.”

“Good talk, then?”

“Yeah,” Ten responded, flicking his wet hands at Johnny playfully. “But apparently you’re an eavesdropper.”

“I’m not!” Johnny protested as he tried to dodge the droplets of water, laughing. “Oh my God, stop it!”

Ten smiled mischievously, moving to slot himself between Johnny’s legs and reaching for the towel to dry his hands. Instead of taking it when Johnny held it out, he stuck his hands under the hem of Johnny’s shirt, making Johnny shriek as he pressed his wet hands to the smooth skin of his ribs.

Ten quickly grabbed the towel from Johnny, dried his hands off, and threw the towel behind Johnny’s back onto the counter. Johnny shook his head, smiling, as he snaked his arms around Ten’s torso, pulling his closer. “You are a fucking menace, you know that?”

Ten cocked his head innocently, batting his eyelashes and bunching his hands in the fabric of Johnny’s shirt. “But I’m pretty, though.”

“You are,” Johnny murmured, leaning in and pressing a short kiss to Ten’s jaw. The way their bodies were pressed together, Johnny’s long legs on either side of Ten’s body, was making Ten’s blood quicken a little as he sighed contentedly.

“I wasn’t fishing for compliments, but I’ll take it,” Ten said, voice low and a little uneven as Johnny’s mouth traveled down Ten’s neck with more kisses.  “Please, tell me more.”

Johnny let out a soft breath of laughter as he pulled away, leaning his head back to look at Ten. “We’re in Taeyong’s kitchen, so I feel like that would be unwise.”

“Ugh, that’s no fun,” Ten complained, knocking lightly on Johnny’s chest. “And why not?”

“Maybe I’m trying to make a good first impression on your friends,” Johnny said.

“Oh, don’t, please.” Ten rolled his eyes. “They are a bunch of idiots and they will be on your nerves in no time, don’t worry.”

“I’m looking forward to it,” Johnny took his hands, putting just enough space between them that their position would no longer be considered _compromising_. He could so easily see a future with Johnny, their individual friends becoming ‘our friends’ and their lives becoming interwoven in that way that used to terrify Ten--it didn’t so much, now. “But there are still some things I’d much rather do in private, without eight sets of ears listening in.”

Ten laughed, swinging their hands a little, his heart nearly bursting out of his chest from happiness. “Yeah, me too.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just wanted to say thank you so much for all the nice comments! y'all are too sweet, even after what I did last chapter lol.  
> Just an epilogue left, and then this is all done!


	7. Epilogue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the title of this fic came from "peer pressure" by james bay ft julia michaels

“So,” said Ten. “I have a question.”

Johnny shouldered his backpack tiredly, glancing over at his boyfriend in question when Ten didn’t continue. “Oh, did you need my input? An unusual occurrence.”

“First of all, rude,” Ten responded, taking a sip of his iced coffee. “Second of all, you seemed like you might be dying of heat exhaustion, so I wanted to make sure you were listening before I asked.”

Johnny did, in fact, seem a little like he was seconds from collapse due to the oppressive Bangkok heat as they meandered through the streets of the city, sent out of the house by Ten’s parents to do some sight-seeing and let their American visitor have a break from Ten’s large and very involved extended family.

Today was the hottest day of the month so far, shimmering lines rising from the black pavement, and it wasn’t even summer; Ten was a little concerned this might take Johnny down as he wilted more and more throughout the afternoon.

Johnny grimaced, attempting to tuck a stray hair back into his bandanna and failing repeatedly. Ten reached up and did it for him. “I can’t believe you’re not even sweating. This isn’t fair.”

Ten smiled breezily, linking his arm through Johnny’s as they walked, narrowly avoiding a bike messenger that was zipping past them. The streets were always crowded, always loud, especially in downtown. They’d only been here for a few days, but Ten already felt at home here again, among the vibrant chaos that was Bangkok. “At least it’s not a blizzard, darling.”

“Ugh, I just wanted you to feel bad for me,” Johnny complained.

“Aww, baby,” Ten cooed without sympathy, making Johnny laugh tiredly and roll his eyes. They had just visited Chicago last week, where it was well below zero and constantly windy; Ten had bundled up in every item of clothing he owned and it still wasn’t enough. Now, Johnny was in a tank top and shorts in December, sipping Starbucks in the sunshine. Ten was pretty sure he knew which one of them had it worse.

“Okay, point taken,” Johnny said. “What was your question?”

Ten considered him. He’d been thinking about this ever since they’d been sat on the plane devising a highly edited story of their first meeting for their families, since there was no fucking way they were telling the real story to either set of over-protective parents, much less Ten’s eighty-year-old nanna. “Do you ever think about the way we met? Like, it was weird, right? There were so many ways for that situation to go differently.”

Johnny nodded slowly, clearly puzzled at this sudden shift in topic. “I’m glad it went the way it did.”

“Right, well, me too,” Ten answered impatiently, struggling to articulate what he meant. “I don’t know. Meeting your family last week, and bringing you home to Bangkok, it just made me think about it.”

Johnny grinned. “Are you asking if I think it was fate?”

Ten elbowed him gently. “No, but…”

“Because, like, yes, honestly.”

“Really?” Ten looked up at him in curiosity.

“I never fucking used those hook-up apps,” Johnny said. “And you didn’t either, you’ve said. But that time, we both did, and I happened to see your profile and think of that frankly amazing pick-up line--”

“Revisionist history,” Ten interjected.

“Differences in opinion,” Johnny conceded, goofy grin on his face. “But, all of that… and the snowstorm… it all had to happen that way or I wouldn’t be in Thailand with you right now.”

“I wouldn’t have been this happy,” Ten said softly, not looking at Johnny.

He wrapped his arm around Ten’s waist. “Me neither,” he said fondly. “I'm real glad I got snowed in with you, dude." 

Ten smiled and ducked his head, feeling uncharacteristically shy. He cleared his throat, trying to compose himself. “Okay, you smooth motherfucker, where do you wanna go next?”

Johnny thought about it. “I don’t think I can handle more tourist spots today. Take me someplace that only a local would know.”

“Hmm, that’s a lot of pressure.” Ten dragged Johnny out of the way of a tuk-tuk as it charged passed, the driver yelling obscenities as she went by. “What did you have in mind?” 

Johnny only looked a little shaken by the encounter, a testament to how quickly he was getting used to city life in Bangkok. “I want to see somewhere you loved going as a kid.”

Ten nodded thoughtfully, holding his hand out for Johnny to take. “I think I have just the place.”

* * *

The heat was starting to dissipate a little by late afternoon, the shadows longer and providing more relief from the oppressive Bangkok sun. Ten and Johnny walked slowly among the ficuses, finally settling on a secluded bench overlooking a quiet part of the canal.

Even if it wasn’t anything particularly special, it was Ten’s favorite spot; nothing had really changed, even though he hadn’t been back in nearly six years now. When Ten had been a teenager, he had come here when he felt tired or overwhelmed or just that he didn’t want to return home yet after dance practice. The park was beautiful and calm, an oasis of quiet amongst the dirty, busy city. Ten was comforted by the sound of the water going by, families of birds flapping around and floating on the canal.

“You doing okay?” Johnny’s voice broke into Ten’s reverie.

“Yeah,” Ten said, “I was just thinking about the last time I was here. I feel like a completely different person now.”

Johnny nodded. “I understand, I think. Going home is weird.”

“Well, and like…” Ten struggled to find words. “I never want to forget where I’m from, but sometimes it doesn’t even feel like home anymore. It does, but it doesn’t. I don’t know.”

Johnny put his arm around Ten’s shoulders, listening intently. Ten watched a swan float by, trying to wrangle his feelings. He thought about his mother and father, and his little sister, who had grown up into a real adult human in the time he’d been gone. He swallowed, and said softly, “I don’t know if I’ll ever live here again, and that’s a weird thing to realize.”         

He looked at Johnny. “Sorry,” he laughed self-consciously. “I don’t know where that came from.”

Johnny shook his head. “No, I think I get it, a little. I know it’s not the same, but… my parents are very Korean, you know? And I grew up with them, but I’ll never be fully Korean in the way they are. It’s that disconnect between where you’re from and who you are now.”           

“Yeah.” Ten laid his head on Johnny’s shoulder, suddenly feeling exhausted from the day. “How about you? Are you freaking out after meeting my family, frat boy?”  

The days since they’d arrived in Thailand had been full of hugs and tears and lectures from Ten’s mom, and Ten himself was feeling a little burnt out, as much as he loved seeing his family after all this time; he wouldn’t blame Johnny if he was overwhelmed.

Johnny brushed his fingers along Ten’s arm reassuringly. “Not really. They’ve been so welcoming. I almost can’t believe how nice they’ve been.”

“They’re pretty great,” Ten agreed. “But, like... it’s a lot. I know that Thailand is a bit more of a commute than Chicago. I’m really happy you came with me.”

“I’m really glad you asked,” Johnny answered earnestly.

Ten smiled, looking up at him. “Of course I did, I love you. It wouldn’t have felt right, coming here without you.”

Johnny pressed a kiss to his forehead. “I love you, too. I’m still impressed that you braved the Chicago winter for me.”

They were quiet for a few moments, watching the water. It was hard to believe it had been a year; sometimes it felt like no time at all, and sometimes it felt like he and Johnny had been together their entire lives. His relationship before Johnny had been nothing like this, and Ten wondered how he’d ever thought that was it for him. He had been running away from love for a long time, and now he was here, it didn’t feel so bad at all.

When Johnny spoke again, it startled Ten a little, lost in his thoughts. “Hey, Ten?”

Ten looked up. “Yes, Johnny?”

“Do you wanna get married?”

Ten was positive he’d misheard him. He put a hand to his ear dramatically, beckoning Johnny closer. “I’m sorry, could you repeat that?”

Johnny tugged on Ten’s ear lightly in protest, grinning. “You heard me.”

Ten just stared, eyes wide. “Are you fucking kidding? Just like that?”

Johnny seemed to be having trouble keeping his cool now, uncertainty filtering into his eyes at Ten’s response. “Yes? Why not?”

Ten spluttered, “I… we’ve only been dating a year! We have literally no money. How would get married when we don’t have money? We can’t even afford a new heater for our apartment.”

“You’ll be a big-time dancer soon anyway. You can provide for us while I do the starving artist thing,” Johnny raised an eyebrow at him, and Ten smiled, despite his protests. 

"Yeah? And what about when I'm thirty and I have a broken hip and I can't dance anymore?" 

Johnny waved that away like it was of no consequence. "Then I'll make it big in the movie business and we can retire in Fiji." 

Ten nodded seriously. "I'm sure we'll have a great time convincing our landlord of that." 

There were a dozen reasons why it wasn’t a good time, but all of them died on his lips, unimportant; they were all just circumstantial, and none of them pertained to how he felt about Johnny. Based on his feelings alone, he would marry Johnny in a second. “Okay.”

“Okay?”

Ten laughed, a little hysterical, throwing his hands in the air. “Okay.”

Johnny huffed a soft laugh of his own, leaning close into Ten’s space, before murmuring into his ear, “Cool, dude.”

Ten put a hand on Johnny’s chest, pushing him back. “Oh my God, I take it back. Nope, no can do, Seo, sorry.”

Johnny was smiling at him in that way that always made Ten’s heart palpitate, and it made it hard to think straight. Good thing he didn’t have to, being the gay disaster he was. “No take-backs. You’re supposed to love me for my flaws and all.”

“I wasn’t aware of the terms of the agreement,” Ten said, laying his hand on Johnny’s jaw, and leaning in close. Johnny put his hand over Ten’s, lightly tracing where a ring would go on his finger. “You’re trying to put me under some type of frat boy spell.”

“Maybe,” Johnny nodded seriously. “Maybe this is still the long-con for murdering you.”

“Jesus fucking Christ,” Ten answered, rolling his eyes. “Just do it already, you coward.”

Johnny kissed him, and Ten was so ridiculously in love. He melted into the kiss, running his free hand through Johnny’s hair, probably messing up his bandanna; Johnny didn’t seem to mind.

They broke apart, still sharing the same air as they were curled into each other on this bench. The birds floated by on the water, squawking and doing their normal bird things, seemingly uncaring that Johnny and Ten had just gotten engaged in front of them.

The city kept going around them, loud and busy, and Johnny and Ten were alone in their little bubble of togetherness. Which was fitting, considering the way their relationship began.

Ten glanced at the time on his phone. “Fuck, we need to be back soon. My mom’s making dinner.”

Neither of them made a move to get up. Johnny was brushing his fingers lightly along Ten’s collar bone, Ten’s wrists, Ten’s back, and Ten could feel goose-bumps on his skin as he shivered slightly. Johnny had always been big on physical touch, but Ten found that he still couldn’t get enough. He couldn’t help but ask, “You really meant it? When you asked?”

Johnny’s eyes softened, warm and loving. “Yeah, I meant it. I've been wanting to ask you for a while, but I wasn't sure if it was too soon. Did you mean it when you said yes?”

Ten smiled. “I would never have said no to you, Johnny.” He cleared his throat, blushing at the ease of the admission, out of his mouth before he even realized it himself. It was far too easy for him to be vulnerable these days. “And besides, how else am I going to get a green card?”

“I knew you were just using me for my citizenship.”

“Obviously.” Ten kind of wanted to stay in this moment forever. But they had places to be, after all, and that was good, too.

Johnny stood, stretching, and held out his hand for Ten. “Ready?”

Ten took it. He was. “Yeah.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's done! I know it was super cheesy, but that's what I like in fanfic, so :) Also, I learned that I've been spelling bandanna wrong all this time.  
> In all seriousness, thank you all so much for the support for this; I'm new to this fandom, so I really appreciated all the kind words. Thanks for reading <3


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